Thursday December 21, 2000

Shopping Gotcha!!!

The "Gotcha" unit flew to Phoenix, Arizona, a booming desert city filled with cosmopolitan shopping malls. For our experiment, we sent James Hood, a high tech manager, and Rob Rosen, a "Gotcha" producer, shopping. First stop, Sack's Fifth Avenue.

Our hidden cameras found Rob was helped almost immediately and James was ignored, even as he looked lost. Salesmen brushed right by as James clearly needed help. Six minutes and eight seconds after Rob was helped, someone finally approached James. The scoreboard: Rob -- one, James -- zero.

James says, "It made me feel pretty bad."

Up next, Macy's department store. Again, Rob was helped first and James was ignored for seven minutes. James describes, "After about 4-5 people... after he had helped them… he finally did look at me when I was just two feet away from him."

On camera, James says to the salesman, "You think I might be able to get some help here. You've helped everyone else out."

Salesman says, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, yeah, I'm right here."

James says, "I've been right here the whole time."

Salesman says, "I'm sorry."

Dr. Earl Hutchinson, who's written a book on race, is not surprised James was ignored. Dr. Hutchinson says, "One, there's a perception that we're thieves, we're robbers, we're in here to clean out the store. We're somehow dishonest and untrustworthy. The second thing, the perception is we don't have any money. That's racial profiling, and by the way that's illegal."

We tried this experiment in LA and recruited Gervace who you may remember from "Survivor." Extra's Phil Shuman disguised himself by putting on a fake mustache and glasses. The result? They were both ignored. No surprise to anyone who's shopped in L.A.

"Gotcha" also flew to New York where Eddie and Dr. Sean, another survivor "castaway" both were equally badgered. No surprise to anyone who's visited the Big Apple.

But back in Phoenix, it was a different story. At Polo, Rob was approached first and at Banana Republic a saleswomen approached both men at the same time. But in Gucci, Rob was helped nine minutes and sixteen seconds before James! Also at Nordstrom's and Brooke's Brother's, James was ignored for more than 10-minutes! Then finally at Robinson's May, a salesman actually went up to James first. The final tally: Rob was approached first six and a half times, James only one and a half.

Phil Shuman asked, "How did this make you feel?"

James explained, "Pretty much, by the end of the day shopping here, I felt like a victim."

James and Phil returned to the stores where he felt the salespeople blatantly ignored him.

Phil Shuman explains, "I'm Phil Shuman from Extra. This was our shopper James. He said he was pretty much ignored for nine minutes."

Manager: "I'm not going to be talking to you on camera here."

Next up, Gucci, where the store manager threw the "Gotcha" squad out the door... and then called security. But at Brooke's Brothers, after confronting manager Marissa Dobertin, she agreed to look at our tape.

Marissa exclaimed, "I have no clue why that happened."

Phil added, "Is that possible?"

Marrisa, "No, not at all. None of us here are in any way, shape or form are anti-racial. There's no reason why that should have happened at all."

Marisa promises to talk to her salespeople about this and that was a good idea because when someone tries to "getcha" Extra will turn the cameras on them and say..."Gotcha!!"