Kroger responds to two employees’ refusal to serve pro-police customers

Kroger Co. was caught in a firestorm after customers at stores in Texas and Louisiana complained that cashiers wouldn’t serve them because they wore pro-police T-shirts.

The two incidents occurred in the last two weeks in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, and Alexandria, La. The customer in Spring told KTRK-TV she was wearing a “Police Lives Matter/All Lives Matter” shirt and the cashier stepped away from the register and refused to ring up her groceries, saying she was offended by the shirt. The woman said she’s the wife of a police officer.

A similar incident in Alexandria, La., on Sept. 27 involved a Pineville, La., police officer who was off duty and wearing a pro-law enforcement T-shirt. The cashier allegedly refused to serve her, saying she had problems with the police, according to the Blue Lives Matter website.

The Blue Bow Foundation, a Houston-area nonprofit aimed at supporting law enforcement officers, pulled its link to Kroger’s rewards program after the incident. Blue Bow, like many nonprofits, had an arrangement that gives the foundation a donation when supporters use the Kroger rewards card.

“Due to the recent situation in which a police wife was refused service at a local Kroger store for wearing a ‘Police Lives Matter, All Lives Matter’ T-shirt, The Blue Bow Foundation regrets to announce that we are cutting our ties with the Kroger Plus Rewards Program,” it said in a statement on its website. “It is our understanding that similar situations have occurred at other Kroger stores as well. We do not condone and cannot support an organization that refuses to immediately and unequivocally stand up for officers, their families or anyone who supports them.”

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