Smoothie Shop Worker Fired for Refusing to Serve Police

A Tropical Smoothie location in Florida fired one of its employees for refusing to serve a police officer.

An officer posted on social media about his experience at the shop’s Winter Haven location.

The officer said that he and another officer went to Tropical Smoothie on a Sunday afternoon. He explained that he wore plain clothes while his colleague wore his police uniform.

As they were about to order, the employee said to his co-worker, “I’m not serving them, you can. It’s the cops. I refuse to serve them.”

The officers decided to leave the store to “avoid any extra sauces in [their] food.”

WFLA reports the post was shared more than 8,000 times, but a search for the post garnered no results. It has, however, been re-posted by other users.

Tropical Smoothie of Winter Haven responded by firing the employee and releasing this statement on social media:

Our company doesn’t tolerate any discrimination of any kind. We have investigated into this case and terminated this employee immediately. This employee’s comment about the police officers was very disrespectful and absolutely unacceptable! We have always supported law enforcement and military. For the past years, our cafe has served to numerous law enforcement who has patronized our café. We sincerely apologize for the misbehavior of our former employee.