A black father alleges that when purchasing paint for his son at an arts and crafts business, he was “racially profiled” and “refused service” because the employees thought he would commit an “incidence of graffiti.”
But Hobbycraft says it was because he could not provide ID for an age-related product.
Louis Gray, from Cardiff, alleges he was refused service at his local Hobbycraft store on Saturday when trying to buy spray paint with his four-year-old son so that he could have a bike helmet in ‘a new colour to be like his idol’.
Mr Gray said, ‘I was buying spray paint to ironically spray my 4-year-old’s bike helmet a new colour to be like his idol. You need to be 16 to buy spray paint in the UK! Cool I accept that, but that’s in place to stop ‘incidences of graffiti’, in my opinion very different to gambling and alcohol.’
In an email to Mr Gray, Hobbycraft apologised for his ‘recent experience’ and said the reason why he was refused service was because he could not provide ID for an age-restricted product.
They said they were continuing to investigate the incident and said they had a ‘zero tolerance approach’ to racism.
According to government legislation, it is an offence to sell aerosol spray paints to persons under the age of 16, with the objective to ‘reduce the incidence of criminal damage’ caused by ‘acts of graffiti’.
Mr Gray claims he was ‘surrounded’ by three members of staff—one who was allegedly ‘wearing a bodycam to record the transaction’ and one who allegedly ‘waved his hands in the air’ to signal more staff.
Mr Gray believes he was ‘racially profiled’ by staff at the store and ‘refused service’ based on the colour of his skin and because he was wearing a ‘Nike tracksuit and Yeezys’.
He said, ‘It was the first time I have experienced racial profiling in front of my child. It’s something I always thought I could protect him from, however, today, it was stolen from me. I was judged in front of him, I had to stay strong and keep my head up in the face of adversity.’
In an email to Mr Gray, Hobbycraft said, ‘We would once again like to apologise for your recent experience in our store. We have a zero-tolerance approach to racism here at Hobbycraft, and this is not how we want any of our customers to feel. As an employer, we are dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for our colleagues and customers and therefore take your feedback very seriously.
‘We are continuing to investigate this with our Newport store team. Your situation involved the purchase of an age-restricted product which requires age verification, meaning all colleagues are trained to ask for ID should they believe the customer is under the age of 25. As you were unable to share ID with our colleagues, they were unfortunately unable to authorise the sale.
Regarding the race card, I’m not sure, but it’s obvious that this man is older than sixteen or twenty-one. Since the man was clearly too old to be ID’d for the item he was attempting to buy, Hobbycraft didn’t need to ID him.
My son was ID’d for Rizla papers once. He never got served because he never had ID on him. My son was definitely over the age of 21 at the time, and earlier he had gone through the main checkout to buy alcohol, which he wasn’t ID’d for. I complained to the company, which I will not mention, and all they said was that they would give their staff additional training. Unfortunately, some of the staff behind the tills run on having a power kick and enjoy it.
I understand that some people don’t always look their age, and the cashier might not be sure, but this guy clearly looked over 21 and therefore should not have been ID’d.
Regarding the race card, I’m not sure. He could have believed it to be the cause, and it might have been, but we won’t know for sure until the CCTV evidence is shown, which is unlikely to happen anytime soon. The store must retrain its employees on its policies.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 