Smoothie King Releases Statement After Racial Slurs Printed On Receipts At Two Stores

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Smoothie King has released a statement after racial slurs were printed on receipts in place of customer names at two separate Charlotte stores on Sunday.

The first incident occurred at the Smoothie King on Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road.  A customer received a receipt which appears to have the “n-word” in place of the customer’s name.

The second incident happened at the Davis Lake Parkway location.  In this instance, the name “Jackie Chan” was substituted for the customer’s name.

The company says the employees responsible for the slurs have been fired.

On Sunday, Smoothie King CEO Wan Kim released the following statement:

“Today, two instances happened in our Charlotte franchise stores that are totally unacceptable and go against every value that we stand for. Two of our team members wrote inappropriate, racial remarks about our guests.  We have zero tolerance for any action where a guest is disrespected, and we have taken immediate and decisive action. As of tonight, both team members involved have been terminated.  Both stores will be closed until the franchisees and their respective teams complete further training on our standards and to ensure that nothing like this occurs again.  Additionally, we are continuing our investigation to insure that any individuals involved in these situations have been terminated.  This behavior does not in any way reflect our company’s commitment to creating an open and welcoming environment, and for that we sincerely apologize. Our senior management team is taking additional steps to reinforce and retrain all of our franchisee and store-level employees of our inclusivity policies and best practices.”