In the past few customers have been boycotting Zara in Hanoi, demanding the store to show more respect after officers of the outlet accused a woman with theft and arbitrarily rummaged through her belongings at the public area of the trade centre.
On September 12, the woman called B.H. took the escalator of Vincom Ba Trieu shopping centre. When she passed by the Zara outlet, the store’s security gate started ringing. The shop staff immediately approached her and asked to check her bags, even though she never entered the Zara outlet in the first place.
Zara has officially set foot in Vietnam in September 2016 by opening its first store in Vincom Center Dong Khoi, and the next one in Vincom Ba Trieu one year later.
Zara is owned by Inditex Group, one of the world’s leading fashion retailers headquartered in Spain. However, Zara stores in Vietnam are operated by Inditex’s Indonesian partner Mitra Adiperkasa. In addition to the Zara brand, Mitra Adiperkasa Vietnam also manages Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, and Massimo Dutti in the country.
“I did not even set foot into the shop and the security guard at the escalator saw that, the Zara staffs still demanded that I give them my bags. In the middle of the shopping centre, with the public staring at me like at a common thief, they ransacked my bags,” shared B.H. on her Facebook page.
“I asked them multiple times to ask the security guard beside the escalator and watch the camera recording to confirm that I did not even enter the shop before checking my bags, but they simply refused. They even asked me to hand over my clutch bag, which is as small as my hand, because apparently these are the rules at Zara. I’m not sure Zara sells anything that would fit into such a small handbag,” she continued, still fuming.
After finding nothing of consequence, the staff did not apologise to her, they said they were helping her prove her innocence, which only served to make B.H. feel more offended and slighted.
According to the Criminal Procedure Code, the authorities can check people or their belongings only when they provide evidence of violations. Thus the Zara staff’s insistence despite B.H.’s repeated outcries that she never entered the store and demands to check security footage constitute a hefty violation of the law.
It has been two days since the incident, but Zara has been quiet on the issue. Does Zara not respect shoppers and feel no need to apologise?
Nguyen Huong report on VIR