On March 14, 2015 I went to Rainbow grocery located on Folsom in San Francisco's SOMA district to price kombucha so I could make my own from scratch [kombucha is a health tonic made from tea, sugar and kombucha culture a strain of beneficial bacteria, much like yogurt.] First I had to wait in line for about 10 minutes to use the restroom, which I had to wipe down before use. After walking around the store for a good 10 minutes and not being able to find it, I asked a stocker who was busy stocking shelves and was pointed in the right direction.
After pricing it I decided not to purchase any from there because it seemed that all the less expensive brands had been replaced by much more expensive ones with fancier labels. [Yet another local establishment catering to the new gentrification/Stepford-Ciscan crowd.]
On my way out of the store I ran into an old friend who works there and we chatted for about 5 minutes.
On my way out the door I was stopped by security, a gentleman I recognized from around my neighborhood. We never really spoke but until then I figured we had a pretty decent rapport.
He yelled at me " Dude you have to stay outside you all the time walk around the store and don't buy nothing."
[Which is completely untrue about 2 months prior to that I bought a very expensive bottle of hempseed oil about $20 for 24 oz. I do a lot of price comparing before I buy many everyday items due to being on a fixed income]
I started to walk out in a huff but then decided the best way to handle it was to address it to customer service. As I approached the desk I explained that I have been shopping there 10 years and no customer should be treated that way.
There was one male representative at the desk who I recognized from many years of shopping there and a female I also recognized. The woman kept saying over and over again "I apologize I mistook him for somebody else." Judging by the facial expression and and body language of security I could tell he didn't care. So I told the unidentified woman that she needed to make sure he heard that because he didn't appear to care about this new revelation and just started repeating over and over again " so, so" like a little kid who knew he was in trouble and didn't want to face up to it.
On a more recent trip there, the same friend I had been chatting with on the previous occasion advised me to make a formal written complaint because security is hired by an independent company. I took that advice all while being stared at with a menacing glare by the same security guard who was also attempting to communicate non-verbally something to his buddy who was behind the customer service desk at the time and seemed to be giving me an attitude.
Because when I asked if he knew what time it was he responded "yeah I know what time it is" I then rephrased the question can you tell me what time it is to which he responded "seven minutes to eight" which I am certain was not true because I went to Foodsco after leaving Rainbow and was only there about 10 minutes and when I walked to Van Ness and Mission to catch a bus it was then 8:58.
Photo credit: Scott Beale https://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/3785353147/