****** at DJ’s Pick ‘n Pay Howick

I had the absolute unfortunate ****** incident this morning at Pick ‘n Pay. The incident occurred on 27 January 2018 at approximately 11 am. I dropped Nadia off together with her daughter Jesica to do their monthly shopping at Pick ‘n Pay. After Nadia’s shopping was done she asked her daughter Jesica to guard her trolley, full of groceries that was purchased at DJ’s Pick ‘n Pay Howick while she was running across the Pick ‘n Pay parking lot to buy something that she could not find at Pick ‘n Pay from their competition SAVE across the street only to find that on her return, she was bluntly refused to enter the parking area of DJ’s Pick ‘n Howick. On enquiring why she cannot enter the Pick ‘n Pay premises the security said NO YOU CANNOT GO TO PICK ‘N PAY. Her reply was that she has already done her shopping at Pick ‘n Pay and she just want to fetch her daughter standing 20 meters across inside the Pick ‘n Pay parking area. The security guard then said to Nadia that she can go but she must leave her shopping bags in the busy street where there were hundreds of pedestrians walking pass the Pick ‘n Pay shopping area. On my arrival I parked in the street not aware of this ****** incident finding two woman shocked at the incident and treatment they have received from their family store they have supported since they were kids. I then went into the Pick ‘n Pay Store and enquired from the store manager “Fanie” why are black, but not white people allowed to enter the Pick ‘n Pay parking area with hundreds of shopping bags from other stores without stopping black people from entering the parking area. Pick ‘n Pay even offer their clients safekeeping facilities of shopping bags inside the store whilst they are shopping? 1. I parked my vehicle in the street and NOT in the Pick ‘n Pay parking lot to pick up my family. a. I loaded the groceries into my vehicle and was made aware of the incident after I loaded our stuff. 2. We purchased our monthly groceries from Pick ‘n Pay a. We also purchased goods from other stores across the street. i. We were not allowed to fetch a nervous child waiting for her parents unless we leave our purchases in the street between hundreds of strangers whilst all other black customers are allowed to walk right past us and are even allowed to enter Pick ‘n Pay with their purchases from other stores? 3. On enquiring with the Pick ‘n Pay security why they did not allow Nadia to walk over to her daughter that was waiting for her mom to return unless they leave their shopping bags in the street they simply started to pass the buck! a. It was clear to me that I was going to get nowhere with their Mafia style approach and then went into Pick ‘n Pay to enquire from the manager if this is the standard of service levels / security / relationship that the company portrays to all of their customers all around South Africa or is this just a matter of bad management and or appointments on the side of Pick ‘n Pay. i. I met up with the manager “Fanie” who assured me that this is not the way that Pick and Pay operates but yet still from my point of view this incident was reality and my family was on the receiving end. 1. Fanie took down my number and on return back from town I received a message from my son that some security guy phoned and left a 13 digit number for me to phone him back. (This number does not exist) 4. From point 3.a.i.1 it is clear that DJ’s Pick ‘n Pay Howick wants to sweet this matter under the carpet and acts as if it has never happened. My conclusion is that me and my family had so many pleasant shopping experiences at Pick ‘n Pay over the years but I guess that you will always find the rotten apple between the good once. Our country does not need ****** behaviour like we have experienced at DJ’s Pick ’n Pay Howick today and it is indeed bad for the image of our town.