Spar apologises after gay man repeatedly called a ‘fag’ by employees
By Will Stroude
Supermarket chain Spar have promised to take action after a customer was on the receiving end of homophobic abuse at the hands of two of their employees.
Rich Ware, who works in PR, was at Spar on Patmos Road, south London, at around 10pm on Wednesday September 7 when the incident took place.
“The guy who served me at the checkout gave me a filthy look when I approached,” he told Gay Star News. “Then his male colleague walked behind and round me singing ‘faaaaaag’ over and over in a high voice.
“I just turned to him a said ‘yeah, really funny’. He just laughed at me and carried on. I said ‘hilarious’, and they both laughed at me. I paid quickly and rushed out pretty stunned by the whole thing.”
Since, Spar have apologised to Ware, explaining that another company had just taken over the franchised store, but that the behaviour wasn’t in keeping with the company culture.
A spokesperson told Gay Star News: “We take this matter extremely seriously. We have apologised to the customer and we are undertaking appropriate action with the staff members in question.”
The store did not explain what “appropriate action” meant.
“If this was racist abuse I’d have no hesitation in saying they should be fired,” said Ware. “The sad thing is that when it happens a part of you thinks ‘Well, there are bound to be straight guys who don’t like gays'”.
“I absolutely won’t go back to that Spar. I hate to admit it but I’d actually be too embarrassed that they’d be there. So, they’ve lost a customer.”
The story echoes an incident from earlier this year, where two customers were asked to leave a Sainsbury’s store after a customer complained about them holding hands, resulting in a kiss-in protest at the store in Hackney.
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