Harrasment experience at Woolworths

My 16 year old niece and I were unfortunate to fall victim to verbal abuse and harrasment during a shopping visit at a woolworths branch. Two intoxicated men cornered us in the beverage aisle and started calling us inappropraite names.

When I asked them to leave us alone and tried to reprimand them for their actions, the verbal insults escalated. I immediatly threatened to call for security however they were not phased. Instead they proceeded to follow me on my quest to find a security gaurd and continued to shout out vulgar names at me.

When I finally found a security he was unable to assist me as he was "not permitted to leave the door". I was then instructed by the security to look for the manager. At this point I was in a complete panic, I found the manager who tried speaking to the two men, but they dismissed him and casually walked away smiling.

The manager then tried to calm me down because I was crying and took down my contact details after offering me flowers (which I could not accept) and water. I have no anger towards the security or the manager as I could see that they really were not equipt to handle this kind of situation.

However Woolworths, I strongly believe that there are other security measures you can put in place in order to ensure the safety of your customers and staff. I was disappointed that my neice and I had to go through such an experience in a place which should be safe.