CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte woman is hoping lessons will be learned after she says she received a racist receipt from Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse on Rea Road.
"I don't look at the receipt when I purchase anything," Angie Lee told NBC Charlotte.
Lee went to buy a couple of pairs of shoes from the store on Sunday.
"I bought me and my mom shoes," she explained.
However, she said the ones she bought her mother didn't fit her. She drove back to the store to return the shoes when she realized the hurtful word on her original receipt.
As she made her return, she said a different cashier asked for her number so he could bring up the account.
"He asked for my name, he said, 'Is your name Ching,'" she said.
Confused at first, she replied no.
"He said, oh I'm sorry, it seems like someone has made an account for you and put a fake name on it," Lee said.
She hadn't looked at her original receipt yet and wasn't sure where he was getting the name mixed up. So, she made her return and left. Then, she saw that someone had put her name as "Ching" on her original receipt.
"When it first happened, I was shocked. I felt very offended, and disrespected," she explained.
"Growing up that was always a racial slur that some kid would pass by and say to me," she said, remembering growing up in Charlotte.
Lee eventually went back in and asked for a manager. Two of them came up and ended up apologizing to her, according to Lee.
She said they both told her they reported it to higher-ups in the company and they would look at it internally and get back to her in a few days.
Three days later, Lee said she's still waiting for a response.
"It just shows that people haven't changed and this is still an issue," Lee said.
NBC Charlotte reached out to the store, who referred us to their corporate offices. An official statement from Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse reads:
The Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse corporate office was made aware of the incident on Sunday, July 7th and took immediate and appropriate actions. The associate is no longer with our company as of Monday, July 8th.
Our Charlotte area Regional Manager, called Ms. Lee on Monday afternoon and apologized on behalf of the store and our corporate office. Diversity and sensitivity training are an ongoing part of our culture and we have a zero tolerance policy regarding racism of any sort.
The alleged incident comes just a month after two Charlotte Smoothie Kings came under fire after racist receipts were given to customers.
One said the N-word, and the other said Jackie Chan.
"At the end of the day, I just want that person to learn their lesson," said Lee as she referred to her incident.