Dairy Queen Shuts Down Illinois Store After Owner Reportedly Uses Racial Slurs Toward a Customer
Dairy Queen was quick to take action against an owner of one of their franchise locations following reports that the man verbally attacked a customer with racial slurs after she asked for a refund.
The company said in an online statement that the franchise rights of the owner of the Zion, Illinois, Dairy Queen location are “in the process” of being terminated.
According to the Washington Post, Deianeira Ford stopped by the Dairy Queen location last Wednesday, but after receiving her order realized part of it was wrong and part of it was missing.
Ford then asked owner James Crichton to correct the order, according to a police report obtained by the Chicago Tribune, but he refused. She requested a refund for the $5 order, but Crichton, a white man, allegedly responded by calling Ford, who is biracial, and her children racial slurs.
“He called me and my children n——; he said I can go back to where I came from,” Ford told the Post. “He took out his flip phone and he said he would take a picture and put it on Facebook because he wants to show the world what kind of n—— he has to deal with. Then he shut the window and walked away.”
Ford called 911 from the parking lot, and the responding officer wrote in the police report that “Crichton boastfully told me he would be happy to go to jail over the issue and proudly admitted to calling Ford a n—–. He added that he is ‘fed up with black people.’ ”
While the store owner faces no criminal charges, Zion Police Chief Stephen Dumyahn told the Tribune in a statement, “I’m disgusted and discouraged by the comments made by this business owner. I reached out to Miss Ford to tell her that this does not represent the diverse community of Zion.”
According to the Post, after Ford shared her experience on Facebook, Dairy Queen took action.
In the company’s statement, they said, “The recent actions of this franchisee are inexcusable, reprehensible, unacceptable and do not represent the values of the Dairy Queen family, our employees, fans and other independent franchisees around the world.”
Dairy Queen closed the Zion location “until further notice,” adding, “We expect our franchisees and their employees to treat every single person who walks through their doors with the utmost dignity and respect. Nothing less is acceptable.”
In another statement made last week that was released by Dairy Queen and obtained by the Post – before his rights were terminated – Chrichton said, “I would like to sincerely and humbly apologize for my recent words and actions. I have let my family, friends, employees, our system and this community down with what I have done.”
