A Black woman says that she was harassed and discriminated against by an Ulta Beauty employee in January and called out the company for the employee’s behavior.
TikTok user @ellechardanaye shared her experience at an Ulta in Altamonte Springs, Florida, where she says she frequently shops. While in the store, Elle was looking at multiple products when she was approached by an employee who asked her if she needed a basket or assistance.
Elle said she took the basket and placed a lipliner, body scrub, and eyelashes inside it. Then she searched for her friend inside the store so they could check out.
The employee asked Elle if she needed help again, but she declined. While Elle and her friend were in the perfume section, the employee followed them. She told the women to use the tester and not open the boxes. As they headed to the checkout line, the employee asked her friend again if she needed a basket.
“So now my best friend is annoyed, and she’s like, ‘No, I don’t need a basket. I only have one item. Can you stop asking me if I need a basket? I only have one item,’” the woman recalled her friend saying to the employee.
The employee explained that she was missing items from the shelf and asked them if they’d seen them. The products the employee described were in Elle’s basket because she was going to buy them, she said.
Elle said her friend started to film the interaction because they felt like they were being harassed and were “shocked” by the employee’s behavior. The employee named Denise, who said she was the experience manager, told someone to call the police because she felt “attacked.”
Elle and her friend remained outside of the store until an officer arrived at the scene. Elle claimed she told the cop her side of the story before he went into the store. But after he spoke to the manager, he told Elle and her friend that they had been trespassing since they had gotten into a confrontation…
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