Matalan Arabian Center ﻣﺎﺗﻼﻥ

So, I recently went to this shop called Matalan to shop for some clothes for my daughters. I’ve been to this store before and I really did love the collection which is why I decided to go again. But this time around I got the most outrageous experience and I wish I was exaggerating. After picking out our clothes we were waiting in line to the dressing rooms. I didn’t mind and my daughters and I waited for a good twenty minutes. The lady in attending was the problem. She was behaving very rudely towards us and harassing us before we even entered. There were three rooms total and she had kept one locked. When we requested it be opened she mumbled something unintelligible and looked away. Now one of my daughters finally got the spot after another Indian woman (such as myself) left (note that this employee was behaving similarly towards her)The customer before us had taken in loads of clothes and were trying them on continuously for more than half an hour. But as soon as we were about to enter she started making all sorts of comments like “only three pieces are allowed” (the actual number is 4, she knew that) and made a big fuss of making us halt and counting through our clothes. And each time my daughter tried to try on something new, the employee would come back in and count through our clothes AGAIN, mutter insults when we asked for a different size, etc. Treating us as if we were some sort of thieves? When my second daughter entered to try on her clothes, she made a similar uproar and insulted us greatly asking us why we would pick so many. I was feeling horrible and couldn’t quite lay my finger on the reason for such behaviour. That was until a fair skinned woman came in (note that we are Indians with dark skin). Now this customer is not in the fault in any way. But as soon as the employee saw her she started to rush us and try to get us to stop trying on clothes. Suddenly she had the energy to move heaven and earth to unlock the third door so this woman could change. It hit me like a brick that this employee was being horribly racist. Even a fool could see that at this point. In all my years in UAE, this was the first time I encountered such outrageous, disgusting, racist behaviour and it saddens me to say it happened at Matalan Arabian City Centre. Our entire day was ruined due to this one event and I found myself at a loss of words when it came to explaining to my daughters what had exactly ensued. How could I tell them that they were being wronged so horribly because of their skin colour? They caught on obviously but as a woman of colour, it saddens me-shakes me to the very core- to have to see my daughters go through the same pain I did, and the women before me did. At the end, we didn’t even try on half the clothes and just left. I request the management to vet their employees better and take stern action against this particular employee who goes against every value set down by the vision of the great leaders of UAE. I had also submitted a handwritten complaint along with my email ID. I have not yet received any feedback which I can only perceive to be the store’s negligent attitude towards such racist attacks.

I like this store , they usually get nice stuff at great prices and they always get new stuff