Singer Tory Lanez drops $35,000 at Holt Renfrew Vancouver after putting allegedly discriminatory employee on blast

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      Toronto-based R&B artist Tory Lanez publicly called out a Holt Renfrew Vancouver sales associate on Friday (June 9), alleging that he was mistreated during a visit to the store because the employee assumed he was “broke”.

      However, it appears that Lanez—real name Daystar Peterson—got the last laugh when he chose to ring up his $35,000 purchase with another staffer, essentially denying the worker in question the commission from the sale.

      In a now deleted Snapchat and tweet, the singer, who was in town to support Future’s Nobody Safe tour, published a video sharing his experience at the high-end Canadian retailer’s downtown Vancouver location. The video was captured and later re-uploaded to Twitter by content creator @IamAkademiks.

      “Say hello, say hello,” Lanez shouts while zooming in on the supposed employee in what appears to be Holt Renfrew’s men’s department. “Yeah, we balled out your shit. We walked in the store, he ain’t think we was gonna buy nothin’. We balled out his shit. We Gucci’d down, we Louis Vuitton’d down. We everything.”

      The text in the video, meanwhile, reveals that Lanez dropped $35,000 at the luxury shop even after the unnamed salesperson tried to “play [him] like [he] was broke”. A number of Christian Louboutin shopping bags, among others, are visible.

      After some criticized Lanez’s decision to continue patronizing the store, rather than take his business elsewhere, the “Say It” crooner reportedly clarified his actions in another now deleted tweet. “It’s not the fact that we spent $35K in there, we were already going to do that,” he stated. “It’s the fact that HE didn’t get the percentage.”

      In a now deleted reply to one Twitter user, he also confirmed that the Holt Renfrew employee who ultimately received the commission was black. The associate who allegedly discriminated against Lanez appears to be white.

      Holt Renfrew acknowledged the incident this morning (June 12), tweeting that “racism of any kind is absolutely not tolerated”.

      In a statement to the Georgia Straight, Nicole Plener, divisional vice president of marketing and public relations at Holt Renfrew, shared that the company has since spoken to Lanez.

      “We have been in touch with Tory Lanez and are happy to report this has now been resolved,” she said. “We look forward to welcoming him back to Holts again soon. We want to reassure all of our valued customers that they will always be treated with courtesy and respect when shopping at Holt Renfrew, reflecting our values as a company.”

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