A woman’s frustrated rant has gone viral after her treatment at Grand Central Kmart in Toowoomba, QLD.
Candice Draper had purchased a pair of tracksuit pants from the store a few weeks earlier but staff left the security tag on.
She returned to the store with her purchase on Tuesday to have the tag removed, according to the Sunshine Coast Daily.
Made to look like a ‘thief’
But when she walked into the store with the pants and the receipt she said she was made to look like a thief.
“Staff discussed the matter while I stood waiting, (a) crowd looking on as if I was a thief,” she said.
“Apparently they had to get confirmation that I hadn’t stolen them before I was allowed to leave the store.”
She asked what the issue was and a staff member said: “there are dishonest people around” and she “could have walked in with a receipt and empty bag, picked up the tracksuit and took it to counter to get tag removed”.
“This bit of information about returns/issues would of been nice to know before I entered the store,” she said.
Candice then pointed out that the controversial new Kmart layout - where the checkout is in the middle of the store - added to security issues.
The new Kmart layout is controversial. Source: supplied.
Newsflash!
“Newsflash Kmart: had your store still been in the original layout with customer service and checkouts at the front of the store I would not have had to walk through your store to sort out my issue and in turn would not have had to be treated and viewed as a thief,” she said.
She said the layout was seriously flawed.
“Who in their right mind would think paying in centre of the store is a good idea?
“Save everyone the time of double handling and to avoid having to treat every customer like a thief and reposition the counters to the front of the store.”
Candice’s post on the Kmart Facebook page received a lot of support.
A Kmart spokeswoman reached out to Candice and said: “We’re sorry to hear of your experience and would like to look into it further.”
