Memphis Liquor Store’s Facebook Posting Draws Attention

(Memphis) At Buster’s Liquors and Wines, owner Josh Hammond is hoping a Facebook post won’t have a sobering effect on his customers.

“At this point, we just apologize for the post. Hopefully, our customers understand we treat everybody with respect,” Hammond said.

A picture, which was on Buster’s Facebook page Monday and then deleted, showed a customer apparently trying to make a large purchase with a lot of coins.

Customers such as Jerome Pigues and Matt Owens had different opinions about the post.

“It kind of seems like they’re trying to show that she’s poor,” Pigues said.

“I’m kind of neutral about it. It probably wasn’t in their best taste to probably post it,” Owens said.

A Buster’s employee posted, “After five minutes of counting change, this lady came up eight dollars short in her piggy bank on a $91 purchase and she wanted a discount to cover it. We politely declined to make the sale. Had it been any other day, maybe. But we had 20 people in line.”

“We were not trying to incite any public angst about it. It was kind of a customer service issue, and in hindsight, we wish we had not posted that,” Hammond said.

The Facebook post generated hundred of comments online.

Kimberly R. said, “Not cool to shame a patron. Was a loyal customer. not anymore.”

Elisabeth G. said, “Aww c’mon guys. That was so entertaining. You didn’t have to delete it.”

Customers at Busters, such as Gary Pigues and Loretta Tharpe weighed in as well.

“If she’s got money and it all added up, I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Pigues said.

“To embarrass her like that, it was wrong,” Tharpe said.

Buster’s Liquors and Wines says it hopes the community will remember the work it does with charities such as the Make-a-Wish Foundation, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, and not let the post feel more like a long-lasting hangover with customers.

“This is not one of our finer moments, but we do a lot of things in the community. Whether it’s the arts, giving back to different charities,” Hammond said.

Buster’s also issued the following apology:

We are not in the business of embarrassing customers and that’s exactly why the customer’s face was not shown in the first place.  Without going into the overall context of the incident, this post in hindsight was made in poor taste and I personally apologized to our facebook fans about it.  Hopefully, those upset with us will accept our apology and will realize we’ve grown our business over the years by treating every customer with respect.

Josh