I was racially profiled in the Canal Walk store based on a trainee's error.

I was racially profiled in the Canal Walk store based on a trainee's error.

I went into the store with my wife and saw a sneaker I liked and was verbally given the price by the apprentice in store, my wife and I were looking at the sneaker and my wife offered to purchase it for me alongside some other goodies she had her eye on in store. My wife eventually gets to the till to make payment however the items are priced far higher than she expected, almost R2000 more. My wife gestures to me to come over and confirm if all is in order to my surprise the sneaker is R2000+ more than what was verbally discussed with the trainee.

I asked the trainee did he make an error or what may have happened as there is a clear miscommunication transpiring here. He got defensive rolled his eyes and started causing a scene in the store.

My explanation to the apprentice, firstly, was that I would purchase the items, secondly is that he should make sure in future when verbalizing prices to a customer, as I was in his position a few years ago making the same error as an apprentice but my attitude was very different which secured my job irrespective of my failure. The apprentice then started making racial remarks regarding affordability and threatened us to leave store before he calls the security. I demanded at leas his or his managers name but was ushered out of the store in a haste. I left the store baffled and actually left the mall all together. I contacted the Lacost head office via email and the Canal Walk enquiries address to try gain some resolve to this and it is now almost a month later and neither Canal Walk as a mall nor Lacost have made any reparations. The liaison for Lacost has been mitigating the circumstances by requesting to call me at the most random of times or blaming the delay on internal investigations.

Are we as South Africans judged based on the colour of our skin and how much we can afford when we step into retail establishments?