I have shopped at winco's for some time now and although it is understaffed and crowded, I have felt it was worth the savings. However, an incident today involving threats and racist abuse directed towards me by a customer and the store employees and managers lack of interest and rudeness in handling my complaint, shows me that any savings I might have had are not worth it. I will gladly take my business elsewhere and shop with people who have decent values.

I have shopped at WinCo over the last year because of the low cost of the products WinCo offers. Several times I have gone in and the cashier has been horribly rude for whatever reason. Twice I have had to put items back because I didn't have enough money to pay for them. I do not have a bank account, I operate only with cash so I am ever vigilant in trying to know how much money I have to spend on groceries. When this has happened, the cashiers have rolled their eyes, made rude remarks and even gone as far as throwing my items that I was trying to purchase down the conveyor belt because I asked to put something back. Yesterday was the worst experience yet. I went in to the store and I thought I had $75 to purchase groceries and a $20 gift certificate. When I got up to the check-out line, I realize that I only had $42 and the gift certificate. My bill was $84 so I asked if the cashier could suspend my transaction while I went to customer service to see if I could cash out a money order. The cashier said fine. I went to the customer service counter and you would have thought I had asked to cash a check for a million dollars. The smirks and condescending remarks that they could NOT cash the money order because I hadn't purchased it there was unnecessary. A simple no, that is not our company policy would have been sufficient. I returned to the check out line and when I asked the cashier to return several items, she threw a fit. Snarling at me that she would have to cancel the entire transaction and inconvenience all of the customers behind me. The cashier in fact hadn't suspended my transaction, she made all of the other customers wait. The cashier continually made rude and snippy comments about how "some" people are just to stupid to go shopping by themselves and then had the gall to tell everyone in line behind me that they would have to wait because I didn't have enough money. By the way, I am a single mother of 3 children and I work 2 jobs. I am on the WIC program for my children because i meet the qualifications and bust my ass every day (I work 7 days a week) to put food on the table for my kids. I told the cashier to please just cancel the transaction, I would take my WIC and return when I had the correct amount of money to pay for my grocery items. At that point, the cashier really blew up, telling me quite loudly that now she would have to put all the items back before she could ring up any other purchases. I was mortified and completely humiliated. The guy standing behind me in line started muttering under his breath and thew the $22 that I was short on the counter and told the cashier to just get done with it. At this point, I was in tears, my 3 and 4 year olds were crying and the cashier made it all the better by announcing how generous this gentleman was and how people like me should be grateful that a man like that would help me out in my time of need. Just wanting to leave, I thanked the man and asked him for his address and I would send him the $22 when I got paid. He just stomped off mumbling something about now I could have a Merry Christmas. The cashier then tried to hug me! She started babbling on that everyone needs some help now and then and to just accept it and go on my way. After her attitude throughout the entire time, this was just too much. I asked her to stop and leave me alone. She turned away, shaking her head and said something to the effect that some people just didn't know when to stop and say thank you. I was shocked. To top everything off, the cashier pushed the conveyor belt when my ID was on it and it fell down the side and could not be retrieved.

I was completely and thoroughly humiliated and demoralized. For 15 years, I was a professional in the legal field and due to the recent economy have had to find alternate work. Just because as single mother who has a deadbeat ex-husband needs a government subsidy like WIC does not mean that I am stupid or deserve any less respect or service that the guy standing behind me. I am not on public assistance or any other program, just trying to make sure my kids have milk, eggs and cheese. I will never shop at WinCo again and am trying to ensure that hopefully no one else has to endure what I did - 2 days before Christmas.