Two former employees of workout gear retail chain Lululemon claimed they were fired after intervening during a robbery in progress at their store.
Video shows the employees confronting three men wearing masks and hoods who were stealing merchandise from the store in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.
The employees can be heard saying "no" and "get out" to the robbers.
They then followed the men outside after they left the store with the stolen merchandise.
The employees have since been identified as Jennifer Ferguson and Rachel Rogers.
The two claimed they were tterminatedjust for contacting the police after the robbery, but Lululemon has since clarified they were let go for violating company policy that forbids employees from intervening if the store is being robbed.
Many conservatives online latched onto the claim Ferguson and Rogers were fired for calling the police as an excuse to harangue the company for its perceived "wokeness."
Most retail stores have a similar policy about confronting robbers, both to protect their employees from harm and to prevent potentially expensive lawsuits if an employee were injured or killed because they intervened.
Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald told CNBC:
"We have a zero-tolerance policy that we train our educators on around engaging a theft."
"We take that policy seriously because we have had instances—and we have seen other retailers—instances where employees step in and are hurt, or worse, killed."
"And the policy is to protect them."
"But we have to stand behind the policy to enforce it"
Many decried Lululemon as "woke" and somehow un-American—despite the logical explanation for the company policy and Ferguson and Rogers' firing.
Some more reasonable people pointed out McDonald never said the company wouldn't press charges against the shoplifters, just that company policy is employees shouldn't confront thieves—a standard retail policy.
Whether companies are more worried about their employees or their bottom line, it makes sense to train retail employees not to intervene in the case of a robbery.
With the easy access to firearms, too many things can go incredibly wrong.
