Michigan Grocery Store Clerk Fired for Hugging

A Michigan supermarket clerk is now facing charges of assault and battery after a customer filed a complaint claiming the employee touched them improperly. The Plumbs Valu-Rite Foods in Whitehall has since fired the worker for his actions, which witnesses say was nothing more than a hug.

Reports indicate that 57-year-old Fred Civis, who worked at the grocery store for nearly 40 years, was infamous for giving his customers hugs while on the clock. The latest incident, which has cost him his job and some trouble with the law, has spawned a mob of about 2,700 people requesting that local residents boycott the grocer until Civis gets his job back.

However, the store says that even though they have taken a noticeable hit from the proposed boycott, Civis was warned numerous times not to touch the customers. "We don't terminate someone for giving unwanted hugs," said Plumb’s president and CEO Jim Nader. "He just couldn't follow the policy."

Contrary to the thousands of people supporting Civis, we have to admit that receiving a hug from a grocery store clerk is a bit more than we would care to get out of our checkout line experience. In fact, it is amazing to us that he has lasted almost four decades without incident or charges associated with a sex offense.

Interestingly, while the local prosecutor’s office says they do not pursue criminal charges against people for giving out unwanted hugs, we have to ask – where is the line? If a strange grocery store clerk hugs an adult, shouldn’t it be up to the adult to say, “back the hell off me, bro!” What if a small child is the recipient of the hug? Is that okay? How much further does it have to go before it becomes inappropriate and criminal?