Posted on 09/10/2001 10:06:52 PM PDT by Utah Girl
An Orem Sizzler restaurant lets LDS youths bound for the nearby Missionary Training Center eat free on Wednesdays.
Meier & Frank, honoring a practice it inherited from the ZCMI department stores it now owns, offers LDS missionaries and "clergy of widely recognized religious denominations" 10 percent off on men's and women's clothing, footwear, home textiles and luggage.
And Mancuso's Religious Goods, Gifts & Books, which carries primarily merchandise directed at Roman Catholics, offers discounts to Catholic parishes, Episcopal dioceses and LDS wards.
These are but a few examples of a retail practice common in Utah that may come to a halt if Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff heeds the American Civil Liberties Union's call to brand discounts based on religious affiliation a violation of Utah's Public Accommodations Law.
"It is hard for a lot of people to think about discounts for missionaries as a form of discrimination, but the law is pretty clear," said Janelle Eurick, an attorney for the Utah ACLU. The organization wrote Shurtleff a letter asking him to investigate after an Orem woman complained of Rodizio Grill's practice of offering meal discounts to LDS missionaries.
Utah law says businesses may not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion or country of birth.
Missionary discounts are a distinction based on religion, Eurick said. To many business owners, offering such religious rebates is a way of following tradition and helping underpaid clergy and missionaries.
The Tennessee-based Lifeway Christian Stores, which operates two stores in Utah, provides a 20 percent discount to pastors and missionaries.
"Pastors and missionaries don't make much money and it is our way of helping them with their ministries and their work," said Mike Eaves, who manages the Lifeway stores in Salt Lake City and Ogden.
Mancuso's offers the discounts to build its market. "We try to buy for all and sell to all," said Carmen Mancuso, the store's owner.
Yet even offering discounts to the clergy of all denominations may not be acceptable under Utah's law.
"You are still offering a discount based upon religion," Salt Lake City attorney Brian Barnard said. "Essentially, they are saying 'you can have a discount because you're religious,' and 'you're not religious, so you cannot have one.' "
Judy Bruyette, whose experience at Rodizio Grill in Orem resulted in the ACLU's action, considers discounts extended to one group of people because of their religion, sex or race to be offensive.
"I wouldn't want the LDS people to think for a moment that I don't appreciate what their missionaries do and the efforts they put in on behalf of their church," Bruyette said. "But if you were a black person, would you want to patronize any establishment that advertised they gave discounts only to whites? It is the same thing."
Bruyette, who is retired from the U.S. Army, normally avoids restaurants that advertise such discounts. But recently, while planning to dine out with friends on a Wednesday night in Orem, someone in her party suggested Rodizio.
After being seated, they learned the Brazilian steak house offered a 15 percent discount to LDS missionaries. Bruyette, who was dining with a Catholic priest and deacon, said her companions were not offered similar discounts. "We decided we could either leave or complain to management [that all religious discounts are discriminatory]," she said.
Rodizio President Ivan Utrera believes a missionary discount is no different from student or senior citizens discounts, but he removed the "Mormon" qualification from the promotion the next day.
Other types of discounts retailers offer -- to senior citizens, students, community groups and their members -- are permitted by the law because such groups are not "protected classes" under Utah's Public Accommodations Law, Barnard said.
But offering discounts to women is another practice that may come into question.
Like most bars and clubs, Harry O's in Park City stops short of advertising its "Ladies' Night" benefits, which include a half-off cover charge that is unofficially available every Friday and Saturday.
"I don't know how much we like to make that known," said club manager Tara Cinelli.
Word gets out, however. Cinelli says the club typically draws nearly 500 to 600 patrons -- male and female -- with its offer. "We had Mick Jagger in here last winter and he commented that he had never seen so many beautiful women in one room," she said.
For the most part, retailers are at liberty to offer discounts to individuals or groups that represent large segments of their customer bases. And it is easy to see why they are as common as store specials, said Sarah Scheuer of the National Retail Federation.
Discounts offer a way for retailers to cater to their important customers, she said.
And the importance of the LDS missionary market can be seen in Orem on Wednesday nights, when members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints typically drop off their missionaries at the nearby MTC.
Retailers stretch banners across their buildings with advertisements such as the one on the Sizzler restaurant in Orem that reads: "First Time MTC Bound Missionaries Eat Free on Wednesdays."
"It is just good business," said Craig Johnson of Sizzling Platter, the operator of the 21 Sizzler restaurants in Utah. "When we offer a one-time discount to a LDS missionary or the clergy of other religions we will get the business from those they bring along."
Good business or not, Eurick at the ACLU wants Shurtleff to contact all Utah businesses and let them know discounts based on religion are unlawful.
And if the state does not cooperate, the ACLU is prepared to file a lawsuit to stop the practice, she said.
Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, on Friday said Shurtleff had not received the ACLU's letter. "And it would be stupid of us to comment when we don't yet know for sure what they are asking for."
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