Store chiefs speak out over sexist and racist slurs
A RETAILER who suffered a miscarriage around the time she was opening her first c-store says she was told it was “probably for the best” by her male business development manager.
Nathalie Fullerton spoke of the shocking remark at the first Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) Diversity & Inclusion Conference, held at the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow last month.
She also claimed the same BDM told her she was “just being hormonal” – when her youngest child was just six months old – during a row about the stock he was providing.
And when she had complained to the symbol group’s HQ, she said the sales boss called her “a silly little girl” who should sell her shop – and gave her an estate agent’s phone number.
Nathalie said: “I was so angry that I couldn’t talk – and I cried out of sheer frustration.”
So, after the group’s managing director said he wouldn’t tell her the outcome of any disciplinary action, she decided to switch symbols. The owner of One Stop Partick Convenience, in Glasgow, said the move was “a breath of fresh air”.
Nathalie, who was born in Scotland to Indian parents and is married to a Scot, also described how she is treated as if she is invisible on trips to a cash & carry, while Asian males are served as a priority.
And she said she faces discrimination in her shop from visiting reps seeking to talk with the manager, who ask to speak with her father or husband when she appears.
She said: “My team is mostly female and it’s not right that we face these problems in a very male-dominated sector.
“These experiences have a lasting effect on your mental health and your confidence nosedives. But retailer friends have kept me in the industry.”
Nathalie told the audience: “Together, we have the power to shape a retail world that reflects and respects everyone. Let’s keep moving forward.”
SGF chief exec Pete Cheema spoke to Scottish Grocer after the conference about his racial abuse experiences as the owner of a c-store in Raploch, Stirling, from 1988 to 2014.
He said: “It was a real eye-opener having moved up from Kent. I’d never been called a P*** in my life and I tried to educate people that I was Indian.
“But I soon learned that it was a derogatory remark about anyone of my colour. Very early on, we had our car tyres slashed, our windows smashed and I was attacked from behind by three youths. It was a real ordeal.
“The abuse went on for many years, until we got well established in the community.”
Pete also said he had faced institutional racism from the police when he was falsely accused of handling stolen goods during the early 1990s.
However, he said he was later asked to assist the police in creating a victim support scheme and provide guidance to officers on how to engage with ethnic minorities.
Stenhousemuir retailer Asiyah Javed said she used to see abusive social media posts about the fact that she wore a hijab.
She said: “But that stopped after we started supporting NHS workers and members of the community from our store during the pandemic. People’s attitude changed – they realised we are just the same as them.”
Edinburgh store manager Sophie Williams said the most significant challenge she faced was not being taken seriously firstly because of her gender and secondly because of her age.
Sophie said: “There have been multiple occasions where a rep or customer has come in, looked at me behind the till and proceeded to ask me to go and fetch my manager for them.
“Why is it so hard to believe that a 25-year-old woman could be the manager? It is these kinds of stereotypes that we need to break down and throw out.”
Natalie Lightfoot, owner of a store in Baillieston, Glasgow, said she had overcome some “really gnarly situations” in the past that should never have happened.
She said: “It never gets old being asked if the boss is in – rather than being asked if it is myself who deals with the ordering or decision making.
“The baton is being passed to daughters to run businesses now and I always say, ‘How would you feel if your daughter was being overlooked just because she is female?’ Her opportunities should be the same as men’s.”
Moniaive store owner and SGF president Graham Watson said diversity and inclusion was an opportunity to serve shoppers with respect and care.
He concluded: “Each individual, whether staff or customer, offers us something rich, something new. Two of my team are part of the LGBTQIA+ community and I couldn’t run the store without them.”
