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Shopper frustrated after incident last week at Walmart; says it wasn’t race-related

The Estevan Walmart was under fire last week after it wouldn’t allow a shopper to purchase a large volume of items for elders on the Pheasant Rump First Nation, but the person who filed the initial complaint refutes claims that Walmart’s move was rac
Estevan’s Walmart
Estevan’s Walmart was criticized last week after a shopper wasn’t allowed to purchase a large volume of items for Indigenous elders.

The Estevan Walmart was under fire last week after it wouldn’t allow a shopper to purchase a large volume of items for elders on the Pheasant Rump First Nation, but the person who filed the initial complaint refutes claims that Walmart’s move was racially motivated.

In a post on her Facebook page on March 24, Ramona Knebush, who is the health director at Pheasant Rump, said she has been doing good food basket shopping for elders and homecare clients in the community since Feb. 1, before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Saskatchewan.

“All elders are on limited budgets,” Knebush told the Mercury. “So we decided to do this to offset budgets, so that they had more money for their bills, more money for their medicine, more money for what they needed in their homes. We just buy the essentials.”

Knebush believes her efforts are even more important now that the virus is in this province.

She purchases supplies for 14 homes every two weeks.

“I follow the restriction regulations that are out there now and abide by them. When I am in a store I do not over buy; I purchase the exact quantity I need and leave,” she wrote in the Facebook post, which had been shared 281 times as of the morning of March 31.

Knebush said she purchased 14 onions, oranges, containers of butter, bags of carrots, small bags of sugar and coffee packages, and eight quarts of lactose free milk and loaves of rye bread.

And after discussions with two customer service employees, a cashier and an assistant manager, who seemed divided on whether she should be allowed to purchase everything, the manager was called in.

She said he kept cutting her off and talking over her, and eventually told her she could not buy that many items.

Knebush’s frustration grew after she claims the manager said he had to look out for his community. She believes he was saying Estevan, or Estevan and the close vicinity, and she doesn’t believe it was a racially-motivated comment.

But Knebush believes the Estevan Walmart serves the region, and everyone in the southeast is part of this community. But when she told him that they were part of the community, she directed a profanity in his direction, and was asked to leave.

Knebush swore at him again, picked up a prescription she ordered when she first entered the store and left. Then she called the Weyburn Walmart and asked to speak to a manager, explained her needs and was told she could purchase what she needed.  

She noted she did not have any items that are on the quantity restriction list.

But she stresses that the actions of the staff were not based on race.

“I was very careful with my post because I didn’t want to turn it into a race thing,” said Knebush.

She believes other media reports and some social media posts have brought race into the debate.

In an email to the Mercury, Walmart said everyone is welcome at their store and they are proud to reflect the diverse communities they serve through its associates. Due to the high demand on products, Walmart says its Estevan store has instituted product limits in order to allow all customers the opportunity to purchase the supplies they need.

“There are signs posted throughout the store alerting customers about these limits and this very same policy exists in all Walmart stores across the country,” Walmart said.

They are also working hard with suppliers to get products to the shelves as quickly as possible and they hope to be in a place to start to reduce the number of limits they have in stores soon.

“We would encourage everyone to only buy what they need to ensure that everyone can access the essentials.”

Knebush said she will now shop in Regina, since she doesn’t want to exhaust the selection in Weyburn, but she wouldn’t go to the Estevan store again.

She didn’t expect to have this kind of reaction, but she wanted people to know what happened.

“I wanted people to know that there are some of us out there who are shopping for other people.”

Knebush believes this could have been resolved in a different way. There wasn’t yelling, and while there was frustration over it, it wasn’t a rant or she was making a big scene.

She has also tried calling the corporate number she was given and was on hold for a long time, but she will continue to call until she speaks to someone.