Manager refuses to sell his company's products to a customer?

Question

Recently, my mother decided to purchase some school products from Staples department store before school will start. She noticed that the loose-leaf papers that the store was selling was very cheap ($0.09 a pack) so she grabbed a whole bunch and went to the cashier. The manager (working as a cash register) of the Staples department store decides to not sell the product to my mother because he accuses her of purchasing the same product the day before. Whether it's a racist comment of being cheap or not, I would like to know if there's anything that she could've done? (Is the manager wrong for accusing her?)

Answer 1

Staples had a one-day special for 5 things.   10 pencils for 1cent.

Papers for 9cents.    I know that you can't buy the whole stack of papers for 90 cents.  There is a limit of 1 per day.   The ad is in the Sunday paper.  read it next time.  It's in the fine print.  it's just to get you in the store. /

Answer 2

This begs the question -- was your mom in the store the day before or  not?

The promotion in my area is five packs per customer.  So, the manager was within his rights not to sell her the paper IF she had more than five packs, or if she had come in the day before and bought her limit of paper.  

Are you saying that she did not go in the day before, and that the manager mistook her for someone else who might have been Asian?  Is that why you think he is racist?

I think racism involves discriminating against someone because of their race.  But if he made an honest mistake, and really thought she looked like someone who had been in the day before, I don't think that would be construed as racist (but it does sound like he was impolite).  If he refused to sell paper to Asian customers, of course, that would be a racist action.

If the manager refused to believe her when she said she had not been in the store, then I think your mom should have left the store without purchasing anything but noting his name.  She could then write a letter to the District Manager for Staples noting the incident, the name of the manager, etc.  

But...that's also a lot of energy.  If I were your mom, I would just let it go and not shop at that particular store anymore.