Mum outraged after eight-year-old daughter accused of stealing shoes in Sheffield TK Maxx says 'this wouldn't happen to a white family'

Reverend Primrose Ndebele was shopping at the Meadowhall branch of TK Maxx with her eight-year-old daughter when the ‘embarrassing’ ordeal occurred on July 28.

A ‘big fan’ of the store, Primrose said she does most of her clothes shopping in TK Maxx, often spending hundreds of pounds at a time.

So she was ‘very distressed’ when she approached the till to be told by a cashier that the shoes her daughter were wearing ‘needed to be scanned’.

“I told her there had been a mistake as I had purchased those shoes from the TK Maxx where I am based in Edinburgh,” said Primrose.

"As soon as I said this, the cashier gave me and my daughter, who is only eight, a dirty look. Her body language became very unprofessional as though she didn’t want to serve us."

Primrose had the receipt for the shoes in her purse and was forced to show them to the manager, who later told her he would ‘speak to the cashier’s involved’.

"We were standing in a big queue and it was embarrassing as people looked on,” she said. “It was a horrible situation for my young daughter to be in.

"Why the cashier felt we had not paid for the shoes, I don't know. It could be there was a tiny sticky label still left on showing the size, as the shoes were fairly new.

"What I do know is this wouldn’t have happened to a white family. I felt this was down to my skin colour, definitely.

"Perhaps they thought a black family can’t afford nice shoes.”

A spokesperson for TK Maxx said: “At TK Maxx, we are deeply committed to fostering an inclusive environment in our stores in which both our customers and associates are treated with dignity and respect.

"We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind and will take action if we discover this to have occurred.

“We looked into this incident when we were first contacted by our customer.

"Based on our investigation into this matter, we don’t believe the actions of our associates were racially motivated.

"That said, we do agree that our customer did not receive the best service we have to offer.

"For this, our store manager spoke to the customer and sincerely apologised, and explained what actions we are taking to deliver training to embed and reflect our culture and values in our behaviour.”

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