Smoothie King Closes 2 Stores After Employees' Racist Comments

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Smoothie King Employees Write Racist Comments On Customer Receipts

Two separate Smoothie King stores in North Carolina have been closed indefinitely after employees at both locations referred to customers by racist names.

The first incident occurred on Sunday afternoon at a Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road location in Charlotte, when an employee named Caleb referred to a customer as the N-word on their printed receipt. The customer’s niece took to Twitter to in a now-deleted tweet share a screenshot and call the incident “ridiculous and sick.”

Smoothie King responded to the incident on Twitter to say that it was being investigated, before later providing an update that the employee responsible for the racist name-calling was terminated.

But that’s not all–Only one hour prior to the company’s updated response, another Smoothie King customer (also in Charlotte) experienced a similar racist name-calling at the Davis Lake Parkway location.

Tony Choi spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle, saying he’s been to several Smoothie King locations throughout the area–but when he went to this particular location on Sunday evening, he didn’t expect to have such a negative experience. When he heard a number of employees giggling, he asked for a copy of his receipt, and that’s when he saw that the employee taking his order, Zack, had referred to Choi as “Jackie Chan.”

“I let them know on my way out that I was going to write about the situation,” Choi explained. “I didn’t want to make a big scene in front of my kids.”

Choi took to Facebook to share a picture of his receipt, sharing his side of the experience. “Zack H. thought it would be funny to put ‘Jackie Chan’ as my name. Being Korean, I find this very insulting,” Choi wrote. “I experience racism here and there and usually doesn’t bother me. Today I left this store furious on the inside.”