A couple’s evening grocery shopping experience turned sour when they came across an allegedly racist employee at the FairPrice outlet at Our Tampines Hub.
The customers, who go by Farah Nadya and Jahabar Shalih on Facebook, experienced the incident on Sunday evening (Apr. 9).
In a Facebook post dated the same day, Nadya said she and her husband were doing their weekly grocery shopping and came across a stand giving out free snacks for Muslim patrons to break their fast
"Top people tell me to say like this"
Initially thinking that it was a “sweet gesture”, Shalih was then approached by a Fairprice staff member.
“(One) of the FairPrice staff approached Jahabar and repulsively mentioned, “Not for INDIA, not for India”. Jahabar was in disbelief and exclaimed, “WHAT??”. The staff repeatedly said, “Not for India, don’t take. Go away!” So basically he tried his best to shoo us away!”
Shalih tried to explain to the staff that the snacks are for all Muslims, pointing out that “not all Malays are Muslims and some Indians can be Muslims.”
According to Nadya, the staff then replied, “I don’t know. I no education, the top people tell me to say like this. I don’t know. Just go away.”
She expressed her shock and disappointment at the encounter, while explaining that she and her husband were both Muslims, her being a Malay-Indian and her husband an Indian-Muslim.
As of time of writing, her post has garnered more than 1,000 shares and 500 likes.
FairPrice apologises for incident
In a statement issued on Apr. 10 and in response to Mothership's queries, FairPrice acknowledged that they were aware of the incident.
“We take this matter seriously and would like to apologise for the incident. We have since also counselled our employee accordingly.
We would like to clarify that iftar packs are offered free of charge to all Muslim customers during the month-long Ramadan period.”
The spokesperson also noted that it was FairPrice’s 15th year running this community initiative of giving out free dates and refreshments for their Muslim customers.
https://mothership.sg/2023/04/ntuc-fairprice-iftar-muslim-indian/
