UK: Disabled Pensioner Banned from Supermarket Home Delivery Program for Calling Driver a ‘Colored Gentleman’

Daily Mail
October 26, 2013

A disabled pensioner claims she has been banned from using the Sainsbury’s home delivery service after describing one of their drivers as a ‘coloured gentleman’.

Marian Burke, 73, says she used the term entirely innocently to refer to a ‘lovely’ deliveryman who works for the supermarket.

But she says a manager at Sainsbury’s immediately branded her a racist for saying the word and said her custom was no longer welcome.

Last night the supermarket insisted the ban was justified and accused Mrs Burke of using a ‘racial slur’ on three separate occasions. But wheelchair-bound Mrs Burke, who has a Kenyan carer, strenuously denied the charge and said Sainsbury’s should be ashamed of its actions.

Mrs Burke, who suffers from osteoporosis and cannot leave the house, says she is completely dependent on the delivery service for her £80 weekly shop.

Being unfamiliar with computers means online delivery is not an option, so for the last ten years she has phoned the supermarket with her shopping list of food and household goods.

After a string of mistakes in recent weeks with deliveries arriving without several essentials, she called the shop to inform them of their error.

She recalled: ‘When the manager asked me what the name of the delivery driver was, I had to tell him that I didn’t know. I said to him, “I don’t know his name, but he was a lovely coloured gentleman”.’

She continued: ‘Then all hell broke loose. The man on the other end of the phone called me a racist, and said they would never again take an order from me.’

Last night a Sainsbury’s spokesman claimed the company’s ban came after Mrs Burke had been ‘aggressive’ and used ‘racial slurs’.

He said: ‘Following three separate incidents in which racial slurs were used in an aggressive manner against our colleagues we had no choice but to ban this customer.

Read More