Office Depot review: Raise the discrimination cosplay as customer service

Sean
Portland, Oregon
March 20, 2026
Office Depot Corporate Customer Relations
Office Depot, Inc.
RE: Formal Complaint — Racially Discriminatory Customer Service Experience
Dear Office Depot Corporate Customer Relations,
I am writing to formally document and escalate a deeply disturbing experience I had at your Office Depot location at 15550 SE McLoughlin Boulevard, Milwaukie, Oregon. This is not a minor complaint about inconvenience. This is a complaint about discriminatory treatment, a failure of leadership, and a pattern of conduct that I believe warrants serious attention at the highest level of your organization.
MY HISTORY AS A CUSTOMER
I have been a loyal Office Depot customer for over 14 years, consistently using your print services across locations in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. I have always trusted Office Depot as a place where I could get my work done professionally and with dignity. That trust was broken at this location.
WHAT HAPPENED
I arrived at the print services area to complete a print job. Your store has transitioned to a new self-service kiosk model, and I needed assistance navigating the process of transferring content from my iPhone. I was there first. There was no line ahead of me. I was the next customer to be served.
A female associate — a young woman with glasses who was nearing the end of her shift — was directed to assist me. She did not assist me. She stood with me in a posture of visible frustration and impatience, making clear through her body language and demeanor that she had no desire to help me work through the new system. This was not subtle. It was evident.
Then she had the audacity to ask ME to give up my spot so an older couple could use the printer for a passport photo. Let that land: the associate who was supposed to be helping me asked me to step aside. I did not make a scene. I responded clearly and loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear — including the associate coming on shift and the other customers present — saying, “Sure, put me on the back burner.” I said it loud. I said it deliberately. I wanted it acknowledged in that room that I knew exactly what was happening to me.
The young woman with glasses said nothing in response. She did not acknowledge my statement. She did not apologize. She did not arrange for anyone to take over my service. She simply walked away — and clocked out of her shift. I was left standing alone at that kiosk, without assistance, without acknowledgment, without so much as a word. Abandoned.
I want to address something directly: my print job was going to cost $0.88. I had five dollars ready. I was prepared to tip — and was told your system does not accept tips. I understand $0.88 is a small transaction. But I am telling you with absolute certainty that the way I was treated was shaped by the perceived insignificance of that amount. They looked at my job, they looked at me, and they decided I did not matter enough to serve with dignity. That is not policy. That is a judgment — and it is exactly the kind of judgment that should never be made about any human being standing in your store ready to be a customer.
I was the only Black man in that store. I watched staff move around me. I watched the general manager — a woman — make direct eye contact with me, then retreat to her back office, fully aware that I was still standing there without assistance. She did not speak to me. She did not send anyone to help me. She closed the door.
Had I not personally flagged down Cooper — a younger associate who had just come on shift — I would have continued to be ignored indefinitely. Cooper is the sole individual in that store who treated me like a customer deserving of service. He was attentive, capable, and professional. I told him directly: he was the only person in that entire store who showed me real customer service. He deserves recognition.
CONCERN REGARDING RACIAL BIAS
I do not use the word racial lightly. But I am compelled to name what I experienced. I was the only Black man in that store. I was there first. I had money ready to pay. I was patient. I was polite. And I was systematically overlooked — by the associate assigned to help me, by the staff who watched me stand there, and most significantly, by the general manager who saw me, acknowledged my presence with her eyes, and chose to walk away.
That is not a coincidence. That is a pattern of dismissal that I have seen before, and I refuse to accept it quietly. I felt curbed. I felt minimized. I felt like a second-class citizen inside a store I have patronized faithfully for over a decade. No customer — regardless of race, the size of their transaction, or the complexity of their request — should be made to feel that way.
GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS IS NOT CUSTOMER SERVICE
I want to name something beyond the specific incident: the culture I observed at this location. What I witnessed was not customer service. It was a performance of customer service — staff cosplaying the role without any genuine care behind it. You could feel it in the spirit of the store and in the way people moved. The motions were there. The presence was not. They were going through the motions, and that kind of hollow, performative service is its own form of disrespect — because it is dishonest. It tells a customer that the appearance of help matters more than actually helping them.
Cooper was the exception because Cooper was real. Everyone else in that building was performing a job they had no intention of doing with integrity. That is a management and culture failure, and it starts at the top of that location.
WHAT I AM REQUESTING
I am requesting the following actions be taken and documented:
1. A formal review of this incident, including any available surveillance footage from the print services area during my visit on this date.
2. A direct response from corporate leadership — not a store manager, not a district manager — acknowledging this complaint and the specific concern of racial bias.
3. Accountability for the general manager whose decision to abandon a customer in need of assistance — after making eye contact — represents a fundamental failure of leadership and an abdication of her duty.
4. Recognition of Cooper for his professionalism. He is the standard your entire team should be held to.
5. Staff training review at this location, specifically around equitable customer service, bias awareness, and the responsibilities of associates and managers when self-service systems require customer support.
CLOSING
I am a 50-year-old man who has spent 14 years trusting this brand. I came into your store prepared to pay, prepared to be patient, and prepared to work through a new system I was unfamiliar with. What I was not prepared for was to be ignored, deprioritized, and made to feel invisible in a public space because of the color of my skin.
This letter is a formal record of that experience. I expect it to be treated accordingly and to receive a substantive response. If I do not, I will pursue every appropriate avenue — including consumer protection organizations and civil rights channels — to ensure this complaint receives the attention it deserves.
Respectfully,
Sean
Portland, Oregon