Stater Bros Markets

I am writing to make a strong grievance complaint concerning multiple denials of service by the same meat cutter lead/supervisor (I assume he is the lead because he addressed the other meat clerks as trainees) of the meat department at the Rowland Heights, CA store #67.

The first occurrence was in November 2021. I came to the Rowland Heights store #67 and dropped by the meat department. Since there was no other customer, a meat clerk came to me directly. I asked for a roast and said, "would you please grind it?" He paused, turned around and asked a guy (I assumed this guy was the lead/superior) behind him that a customer (me) had requested to have the roast grinded and he was seeking permission from this lead person to grind the meat. I could see that this lead meat cutter did not like the service request. To easy the tension, I said, "Sorry, it must be lots of work to grind the meat. But I have no teeth so I need the meat grinded. I am going to shop around and come back in 10-15 minutes. Thank you so much for your help." I then left the meat department and shopped at other aisles.

When I returned to the meat department, on top of the meat display case, there was something wraped in white paper. Since there was no other customer around, I assumed that the bag must be the grinded up roast I was buying. I picked up the bag and thanked the meat clerk who then immediately told me that it was for another customer and it was not my purchase. I was confused and thought why they served other customers came after me and still had not yet grinded my roast after my 15 minutes of shopping. It was not busy and I saw no other customers other than me. The meat clerk again looked at his lead/supervisor for permission. The meat clerk then grinded my roast while I was waiting. I got the message: the lead meat cutter did not like my request to have the roast grinded and he purposely set aside my meat and delayed the service and made me wait to punish me. They were not busy the whole time I was there so I thought the lead/supervisor was just lazy. Since then, whenever I need grinded meat and I went shopping for meat at the Rowland Heights Stater Bros, I was hoping that the lead meat cutter was not working that day. Who wants to spend money at a place that you feel harassed.

Second incident occurred on 01-05-2022 Wednesday a little bit after 2 PM. This same lead meat cutter flatly refused me service. I dropped by the meat department to buy a tri tip roast and needed it grinded. When I noticed that the unhelpful lead meat cutter was at the meat display cases, my heart sunk knowing he was going to give me a hard time again.

Again, I was the only customer at the time. I stood at the meat display case and waited for service. This lead meat cutter came to me. I said, "May I have a tri tip roast and would you please grind it." With a stern face, he replied, "We don't do it." I asked as a matter of fact, "Why not?" I know Stater Bros meat clerks do grinding meat. I have meat grinded by Stater Bros meat cutters all the time, and they did not refuse my request. The lead meat cutter signaled a female meat clerk to serve me. I told her the same thing, "I want a tri tip roast and would you please grind it. It must be a lot of work. To make your time worth it, I am buying two tri tip roasts and please grind them for me." She must have been told before not to grind meat, she paused and looked at this lead meat cutter for permission. The lead meat cutter said nothing so I thought there was no problem. I stepped back away from the meat displays and waited. I noticed the lead meat cutter said something to the meat clerk who served me, then the meat clerk walked to a working table and started cutting steaks. Now more customers started streaming in to the meat department and couple of meat clerks started servicing the customers. I was thinking, this lead meat cutter guy did it again instructing other meat clerks not to work on my service request. I walked back to the meat display cases area and looked for my tri tip roasts. I found my tri tip roasts in plastic bags laying behind the metal columns separating the glass cases. So, if I don't walk up close and tip toe to look over the meat display glass cases, I would be able to see my tri tip roasts laying there. At the same time, I also noticed that the lead meat cutter attentively cutting a piece of meat into little cubes for a Hispanic woman standing in front of meat cases near him. At that moment, it came to my realization: it is not that this lead meat cutter was lazy and did not want to take the time to grind the meat cause he had no problem taking the time and cutting the meat into little cubes for this Hispanic female customer. This lead meat cutter is of Hispanic descent and he has no problem taking the time doing special cut for Hispanic customers. I am a female Asian. We Asians often buy a better quality of meat and request the meat cutter to grind it for making dumplings and meat ball dishes. Now, I know the reason this lead meat cutter does not like to provide meat grinding services because Asian customers are the ones usually requesting this kind of service! I know where the meat grinder is and I saw no meat clerk near it grinding my tri tip roasts! I then proceeded to confront this lead meat cutter of Hispanic descent if he was instructing all the meat clerks to serve everybody else first and bump me down to the last customer to receive service. He said that the workers are trainees and work a little bit slower. He thought he was so smart trying to fool me. I know no one was grinding my meat at the time and all the workers were either serving other customers came after me or they were cutting steaks. I said, "You did this to me before, serve everybody else came after me, then made me wait 20+ minutes before you instruted a worker to grind the meat for me."

When I got home, it took me awhile to realize that this lead meat cutter's behavior was some form of discrimination against Asian customers. I did not suspect this non white meat cutter of Hispanic descent was playing tricks to deny Asian customers services. Especially since COVID 19, there is so much anti-Asian and Asian hates crime. This meat cutter is not white does not mean he cannot be a racist and discriminating against another race.

Rowland Heights has a large Asian population. This lead meat cutter directly and indirectly influences the meat cutter trainees not to provide meat grinding service (which is violating company policy) to Asian customers and/or service everybody else first before you serve the Asian customers. He is driving away Asian customers and he is also violating the Stater Brothers policy which is to provide meat grinding service to the customers which said so on the Stater Brothers Market's website.

I understand you can't change a person's racist belief, and I think this lead meat cutter will continue to deny service to the Asian customers. Please reassign him to locations that have no Asian population. In the meantime, I will strive to be happy shopping else where until this lead meat cutter is reassigned to another Stater Brothers store.

I will be awaiting your response to this incident.