Te Waka Rua-Pounamu McLeod was shopping at Spotlight New Plymouth recently and said she endured an awkward and confronting situation in which she was racially profiled by staff.
McLeod said she was treated like a criminal by the shop assistant because she was Māori.
McLeod shared her experience on social media to try to prevent such behaviour from happening elsewhere.
'Spoken to like a thief'
An avid creator of her own clothing, McLeod was looking for some patterns and said she was "looked at like a thief and spoken to like a thief” and was told that she couldn't take the patterns around the store.
McLeod said that, initially, this made her feel angry and sad at the situation after the staff member in particular made her feel this way. “I'm also sad that it not only happened to me but other whānau around our motu.”
McLeod said she didn’t contact Spotlight but went public with her problem and was contacted by a regional manager who apologised for the lack of understanding of policy about the patterns.
'Issue is addressed'
“They didn’t necessarily address the cultural issue within their staff and didn’t address that there was anything malicious or intentional about that”.
McLeod said that if she didn’t hear anything back about the issue then she will return back to the store to ensure the issue is addressed.
Spotlight told Te Ao Tapatahi it took all customer feedback seriously, especially when it was feedback of this nature.
"In our other stores, which follow our new store format, customers are able to access the patterns themselves on the floor.
"Our New Plymouth store follows the old store format, and unfortunately, it does not have the space to store the patterns on the floor. Hence why the customer involved was not able to take the pattern away from the counter.
Spotlight said it would "continue to ensure that our customers and staff from all walks of life are treated equally and fairly".