I think there was a reason, but political correctness might be preventing the store and/or the newspaper from specifically mentioning it.
Perhaps something the customer did or said led the sales person to believe or suspect that the phones were being purchased for illicit purposes (e.g. as “burn phones”)
In any event, businesses generally have the right to refuse service to anyone with or without a specific reason.
If the people managing that particular store did not want to sell the guy three cell phones for cash I’m sure some other cell phone store would be happy to have his business.
This
“If the people managing that particular store did not want to sell the guy three cell phones for cash I’m sure some other cell phone store would be happy to have his business.”
You said it, brother.
Any reasonable person who was refused service by a store selling goods that are easily obtained from another store would take advantage of the free market and simply go to that other store.
Key word above: REASONABLE. There is something missing in the story that will make all of the “HE DINDU NUFFINS” people feel really stupid once it’s revealed.
And take this from me, since I work on cellphone theft-deterrent systems for stores as my second job: if you can’t find a cellphone store in a minority-dominated neighborhood, you’re blind as a bat. Just click the link below to pull up cellphone stores on Google maps within a mile of the one where the incident occurred.