Before I moved to my current apartment, I used to shop at Meijer a lot. When I moved, I started shopping at the nearest Meijer, a different one than the one where I used to shop. The employees there frequently bothered my service dog and/or bothered me about my dog. Once an employee kept asking me if I was training him for a blind person. When I said no, he was already trained, he was my service dog, she kept asking if I was sure. Um.... yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd know. Another employee didn't pet him but kept baby talking to him, even after I asked her to stop distracting him.
I talked to a manager, who said he would let the staff know how to behave around a service dog. But the problems continued. I spoke to another manager, who promised to take care of it. But the next time I shopped there, it happened again.
So I stopped shopping there. I wrote them a letter explaining why I would no longer shop there, and sent them some educational material about service dogs, and shopped elsewhere. For about a year.
Recently, I have done some shopping at Meijer again, at that same store where I had all the trouble, because they had some really good sales and they sell some items I cannot get at Kroger. And not one employee bothered me or my dog at all.
Something has changed. Apparently the staff has in fact been educated about service dogs. They finally got it right.
I need to write them a letter thanking them for that.
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