Super Cuts Company which supports Racism Springfield Oregon

Stay Away if you are a minority.

I went to this Supercuts today and was treated horribly by one of the employees named Laurie. I am an Indian American and was waiting patiently for my turn. When my turn came, Laurie was the person who was suppose to cut my hair. She chose to stand around the cash register instead of taking me. One of the other Supercuts employees told her that it is my turn and she should cut my hair. However, she chose to stand around for about 10 minutes rather than cutting my hair.

After about 10 minutes, a white customer came to get haircut for his son. She took that person immediately. I was shocked at this second class person treatment and spoke up. I said that I have been waiting for 30 minutes and she chose to take person that had just come in. She said that these people had already signed in and went to nearby stores. This does not make any sense.

Even if they were signed in, why did she stand around and wait 10 minutes for them while I was waiting. I know that it is not Supercuts policy to wait for customers who are in nearby stores rather than taking a customer who is patiently waiting in the store for half an hour. This was strictly due to the fact that I was a minority and she did not want to cut my hair. I got a haircut from another employee who was very nice and courteous. Supercuts should not have racist employees like this and should take strict action against her. I have also complained to the Supercuts guest relations.

Just heard back from Michelle M who is the "Senior District Leader" for Regis Corporation, which owns Supercuts. She pretended like she was calling to get my side of the story. However, after speaking with her for couple of minutes, it became clear that she was calling to defend Laurie and convince me that this is a big "misunderstanding". She said that she had not spoken to Laurie yet. She spoke to me on the phone trying to convince me that I just misunderstood the whole situation. She said that the other white customer was right outside the door and came in pretty soon.

I said that they can look at the video surveillance to see that Laurie clearly waited for more than 10-15 minutes while I waited patiently. I said that the outside video surveillance would also show that the white customer was nowhere close to Supercuts. She said that unfortunately there is no video surveillance. She tried to put words into my mouth and then said that she knows Laurie and she would never do anything racist. She then hung up on me saying that "we agree to disagree".

Why is Supercuts district manager trying to defend a racist employee rather than getting both sides of the story and taking action against her? This shows to me that the racism in Supercuts is at least a district level phenomenon and this is the reason people like Laurie can engage in racist behavior.

She said Supercuts waits for customers who call to set up an appointment and make the people wait at their location. This is clearly not true. Supercuts do not make someone wait and sit at their location while they wait for someone who has made an appointment. I am never afforded this VIP treatment. This VIP treatment, based on my experience, is afforded to white customers who come in when a minority is waiting for half an hour.

It is also interesting that Michelle chose to defend Laurie even before she claimed to have spoken with Laurie. This experience is a clear sign to Supercuts employees in Eugene Springfield area that they can engage in racist behavior and their district manager will do everything to defend the racism and try to make the complaining person to go away. I have spoken with Regis Corporation after my phone call with Michelle Miller and they said that they will escalate this further. Lets see now whether this racism is only a district level phenomenon or a company wide phenomenon based on the response I get.

UPDATED 7-11-17 05:50 P.M.

I heard from Alicia who is in the "Human Resources Department with Regis Corporation". She was really nice to speak with. However, she failed to do anything other than saying that she was sorry that this happened. I said that actions should be taken against racist employees like Laurie and the people in charge like Michelle who defend racist people.  I asked her if I can obtain full name of Laurie so that I can exercise my legal right of filing a complaint with the Oregon Board of Cosmetology, which licenses barbers in the state. She said that it would not be a problem. However, she later changed her statement and said that after "checking with the legal department" that she is not allowed to give the full name of Laurie. She said that I am welcome to check with the Oregon department of Cosmetology about all the Lauries in the state who are barbers. She said that this is to prevent employee private information.

This is complete BS since this information is required to be posted along with the license in the salon in the full public view. I said that I can easily get this information by going back to the salon but this would likely create more conflict. So this shows that problem with racism is likely a company wide problem. What type of company does everything to conceal the identity of a racist employee? Regis Corporation is doing everything to make me go away and prevent me from filing a complaint with the state agency that licenses barbers. One of the main reasons that the barbers licenses are displayed in plain sight with their full name and license number is so that a person can file a complaint with the state in cases where the employee violates rules and regulations.

This company is basically doing everything to protect racist employees and preventing me from doing anything to complain about racism and discrimination. Shame on Regis Corporation. This is fair warning to minorities who ever think about going to a Supercuts location. They have to be aware that if they encounter a racist employee, they are on their own. Regis Corporation's company culture is so engrained in protecting racist employees that they even fail to give employee full name to prevent someone from filing a complaint with a state agency. I will now file a complaint against Supercuts for aiding and abetting racist employees in their behavior.