On July 13, a former Auchan Group employee posted three photos online about Auchan’s Chengdu (成都) Jinniu (金牛) branch forcing some female customers for strip searching. The photos were first posted on Tianya.cn, one of China’s most influential online communities.
As the former employee explained, he/she did it to take revenge on Auchan because he/she did not get any compensation after being fired. The photos were screenshots of surveillance video recorded at the Jinniu branch on January 4, 2008. The video showed two female customers getting strip search. One customer was even asked to take her panty off for inspection in front of a female Auchan employee.
As soon as the video was posted on the Internet, residents in Chengdu were infuriated. One female passerby in a shopping mall thought Auchan should have sent suspect to the police; strip searching by an Auchan’s employee was very insulting to the customer (00:53 of video below).
According to an inside anonymous source, there is a private room at the Jinniu branch, where all suspected customers are sent to for body search. Yet, local police spokesman emphasized in an interview that only the police have rights to conduct body searches even if the supermarket was certain about any criminal behavior.
In response, the Jinniu branch’s assistant manager, Yi Wang explained via a phone interview that it has been almost two years since the incident happened; therefore, it might take more time for further investigation.
“As a world’s Fortune 500 Company, Auchan has never intended to deny our responsibility in this case. We will give the public a clear and full explanation,” Wang said. In the meantime, she revealed that Auchan’s headquarter in China was concerned about this allegation and had sent a investigation team to Chengdu (1:30 of video above).
Auchan Group is a French international retail group that has international branches in Europe and Asia. Since opening its first supermarket branch in China in 1999, the company has built 36 branches in the country. It is considered one of the biggest rivals to Wal-mart in global market.
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