Posted on 08/26/2015 6:17:11 PM PDT by matt04
Members of the book group, sporting matching gray T-shirts and broad grins, boarded the Napa Valley Wine Train in high spirits Saturday.
“The train is leaving the station! Choo choo!” member Lisa Johnson posted on her Facebook page, captioning a picture of five glasses of burgundy liquid clinking together.
But not long into the trip train staff began asking them to quiet down. Before the journey was half over, they were escorted off the train, where police officers were waiting for them, according to the Associated Press.
“We didn’t do anything wrong and we still feel this is about race. We were singled out,” Johnson told local TV station KTVU.
Wine train spokesman Sam Singer told the AP that staff had asked the book club members to either be quieter or get off the train. He said that people are asked to get off the train, which serves appetizers and drinks to passengers as they chug through California wine country, roughly once a month.
...
But on Tuesday, the Napa Valley Wine Train’s chief executive officer issued a full-throated apology for the company’s treatment of the members of Johnson’s Sistahs on the Reading Edge book club, saying the Wine Train was “100 percent wrong in its handling of this issue.”
“We accept full responsibility for our failures and for the chain of events that led to this regrettable treatment of our guests,” Anthony “Tony” Giaccio said in a statement, which was sent to The Post.
Giaccio said in his statement that he has spoken with Johnson and apologized for her group’s experience on the train. He also wrote a letter to the club, apologizing for the company’s “many mistakes and failures.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The mistake was apologizing to the unruly group and throwing his staff under the train. I hope this backfires and they are flooded with unruly groups.
Crap! Now we are going to have the “wine train effect”; loud obnoxious black women everywhere...
I see (and hear) that all the time. The phrase “soft spoken negro” has become an oxymoron. They’re generally loud, profane and arrogant.
The train’s CEO is a p*ssy.
Sounds more like a club of boobs.
GIIIIIRRRRRRLLLLLLL!
They serve Strawberry Hill, Mad Dog 99, etc. on the Wine Train?
“Praise the Lord and pass the wine box”!
They think it is "good public relations" but never realize the number of people who just quietly removed that activity from their list because they don't want to be subjected to uncouth people spoiling their trip.
I am not angry. I am disgusted.
No video?
It didn’t happen.
They thought they were on the “whine” train.... oops!
I looked for, but did not find, any videos recorded of the women on the train. Just post 86’d pics.
Rules of thumb if you want a quiet meal:
1) don’t sit next to a group of 10 women.
2) don’t serve alcohol
3) Drunks can be loud, female drunks are often louder (in groups)
They were there for the Champipple.
>> The phrase “soft spoken negro” has become an oxymoron. They’re generally loud, profane and arrogant.
Not so much in the country. Cities, yes. Loud, profane, arrogant.
Cackling hens and no tipping. Of course they were thrown off.
Cackling hens and no tipping. Of course they were thrown off.
Having ridden the Wine Train a few times, I am familiar how enjoyable it can be.
Having read this story, I also now can see how unpleasant it can be.
Apologize?
I can appreciate that apologizing is better and cheaper than the prospect of defending an extortion lawsuit.
However, is alienating thousands of future customers (including myself) warrant taking that easy way out.
When you remove it from the box, the wine is called a “fun bag”.
That's right, fictional characters.
Read it an' weep, friends...
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