A popular boutique in the heart of Savannah’s bustling shopping district has riled locals for its discount promotion targeted for Black people and other groups that management considered to be financially disenfranchised.
Civvies on Broughton recently introduced a $20 discount to its booking fee for customers of color, which meant white customers would have to pay the reservation fee to work with staff for purchasing the high-end, secondhand accessories and clothing items at the store.
The boutique had introduced an appointment system to organize its hours of operation after COVID-19 shut down business for several months. The now-deleted post immediately got backlash from potential customers about the assumption that Black people and other minority groups could not pay the fee. Some threatened lawsuits and complaints to the Department of Labor, according to a report by Savannah news station WJCL.
Store manager Raine Blunk said it was “unfortunate” the response was negative from several people on social media. The intention of the promotion was to bring economic equality for people of color.
“They are at this time the most likely to be affected by the poverty,” said Blunk. “This is not based on a racial preference on Black people, indigenous people, people of color, it is based on a fact that that group of people are most likely to be affected by a loss of historical equity and we are taking a small step towards that as a business to choose to waive this fee temporarily.”
Days after the backlash, all posts about the discount were removed from social media. The appointment form has also been wiped from Civvies’ website. The company responded on its Instagram and Facebook about the decision to backpedal on the discount.
“A message from the owners of Civvies: ‘It was not our intention to act in any way that might be perceived as discriminatory and for that we apologize.‘”
The change of heart still did not sit well with many Facebook users. More than 1,000 people commented on the message on Facebook, with many stating the removal of the policy did not equal an apology.
“If you don’t want to be perceived as discriminatory you never should have mentioned skin color and booking fees. Either everyone gets a booking fee or no one does. Skin color should [not] decide who pays a booking fee. That is absolutely disgusting and racist,” Laura Watts wrote under the store’s Facebook post.
Marguerite Dismukes Fischer said of the policy: “Sounded straight forward and intentional to me. Making offensive assumptions about people of color and discrimination against white people. Too late. You have revealed yourselves.”
Many pointed out the current economic climate is difficult for all races, so changing their policy should have been about economic equality overall. Millions across the country and hundreds of thousands in Georgia have filed for unemployment in recent weeks.
Geri Drury-McKenzie: “Assuming all white people can afford the reservation fee is naive at best ; the amount of ppl that have been laid off is insane. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this a second hand store anyway? Why would I pay a fee to shop for used clothing? Someone jumped the shark.”
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