Kicked Out of Hobby Lobby
Last night I was excited to start getting fall decor to get in the autumn spirit; I saw B&BW had BOGO candles, and WalMart had their fall kcups. As these two are in a strip mall by me with a Hobby Lobby, I made the trek out (via tram, as I don’t have a car)
I usually carry one or two reusable bags with me to help with carrying items sturdily, as I don’t have a vehicle to put my bags in in-between stores. I went to walmart first, filled up one of my reusable bags, and then proceeded next to Hobby Lobby. I was looking at the fall items but ultimately searching for these wall decorations I’d seen in a tik tok (lol) of like the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, Charlie Brown, and other characters. All i’d seen from the tik tok was they were on one of the back walls. After not finding anything in the fall sections, I walked the perimeter of the store peering down each aisle at the back walls to see if i could find those plaques or whatever they were.
Again, I strike out. I’m making my way back around towards the front of the store, but see the fall colored floral stems and stop to gander at those. While doing so, an employee comes up to me and starts calling to me. I had my headphones in, so I take them out and greet her. she immediately tells me I need to leave. I was confused, I looked around like is she talking to me? so i ask why/what i’ve done? the employee proceeds to look me up and down, then go “suspicion of shoplifting” i go HUH??? but what am i to do, argue with someone in a store im clearly not welcome in and give them my money?
i’m a gay male, had my nails painted black, but was dressed rather modestly in jean shorts that went down to my knees and a long sleeve sweater shirt with a heart on the back. none of my tattoos were visible (not that any of this should matter, but i will admit one of them is a skeleton hand giving the middle finger- again, this was NOT visible at the store). the way she had looked me up and down and then said shoplifting led me to believe that was a reason she came up with to cover why I actually was, but can’t shake that they would profile like that? could it have been my reusable bags? does no one else at a strip mall go from one store to the next?