Froogel’s fires employee accused of calling Gulfport shoppers the N-word
Froogel’s has fired the employee that two Black shoppers accused of using the N-word against them, the company said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
“As a result of the investigation which was concluded today, the employee who was involved in the verbal altercation with the Froogel’s customer on March 5, 2021 has been terminated effective immediately,” said the statement, signed by owner Paul Durnin, Jr.
“Froogel’s strives to provide its employees with a hostile free work environment and it demands that its employees provide a pleasant shopping experience for its valued customers. We at Froogel’s deeply regret that this incident occurred.”
Kimiyatta May and her fiance Bobby Anderson were shopping for meat on March 5 at the local chain’s Hardy Court shopping center location when a meat counter employee used the racial slur, they said. A Facebook Live video in which they recounted the experience went viral, and members of Black Lives Matter Mississippi and other community members have been protesting daily at the store since Sunday.
On Tuesday afternoon, Anderson told the Sun Herald in an interview that he had not seen the statement and that no one from the store had reached out to him or his fiance.
May previously shared with the Sun Herald an email she had sent to the company’s corporate contact address on its website.
“They ain’t contacted us to say anything,” Anderson said. “We reached out to them, but they didn’t reach out to us. That shows you just what it’s about.”
The statement did not acknowledge use of a racial slur but referred to a “verbal altercation.”
It said the investigation of the incident involved “the participation of local and regional management, human resources and ownership,” and that the company had refrained from commenting publicly until the investigation concluded.
Store manager Richard Fillingame had previously told the Sun Herald that the employee involved had been placed on leave pending the conclusion of the investigation.
