Hugging Cashier 'Creeps Out' Customers, Loses Job

Fred Civis receives hugs at Plumb’s Valu-Rite Foods, which has been the site of protests over his firing and criminal charges. (Photo: Facebook)

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A 57-year-old western Michigan man who began working at his small town’s grocery store when he was 18 has been fired and charged with assault after a customer complained his trademark friendly hug was creepy.

The controversy that erupted last July in Whitehall, a community of 2,700, has escalated to the point that people who said Fred Civis deserved to be charged and fired by Plumb’s Valu-Rite Foods have received death threats. Police are taking the threats seriously as emotions run high in the Muskegon County community.

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About 80 picketers demonstrated last week in front of the store with “We Want Fred!” signs. A Facebook page urging residents to boycott and “liked” by more than 13,325 people has been answered by a second one, Support for the Victims of Fred Civis, which has significantly fewer “likes” – only 62 – and whose founder calls Civis “a sexual assailant.”

What you think about Civis’ practice for the past 39 years of hugging customers – a gesture he told WXMI-TV is a harmless “pal hug” – depends on who you ask.

Some are willing to wait in winding lines for an embrace by Civis, who The Detroit News describes as a commanding figure with a booming voice, effusive personality and large 6-foot-3-inch, 300-pound frame. Others avoid him, or the store entirely. One resident told the newspaper the hug the complainant told police “creeps her out” is only meant as a “handshake from the heart.”

Tell Us: Have you ever felt your personal space was violated by a store employee? How did you handle it?

The complainant, Kendall Maczka, told police that Civis has been hugging her for about four years, but only when her husband wasn’t shopping with her.

On a recent occasion, she was checking out at a self-service lane at Plumb’s when Civis reportedly approached her, put his arm around her shoulders and let his hand graze her buttocks. She verbally rebuffed him, then later filed the complaint. Plumb’s fired him two days later.

“This is a terrible accusation,” Marsha Civis, the fired grocery clerk’s wife, responded to the woman in a Facebook message. “I hope you will grow up and just love people.”

“ ... This world would be so much better if we were all like Fred. Hugs!”

“I have known Fred since seventh grade,” Colleen Bishop posted on the Facebook page, throwing down the gauntlet for Civis. “He was a kind gentle soul then and has not changed a bit. He would never do anything to hurt anyone, and if it was done unintentionally his heart would break. This world would be so much better if we were all like Fred. Hugs!”

Theirs are among dozens of back-and-forth volleys between Civis’ supporters and his detractors on the dueling Facebook pages and in comments on news stories about the dustup.

While most of the chatter supports Civis, some say the charges and the store’s action to remove him are overdue. After Civis was arrested at his apartment in August, located a half mile from the grocery store, four more women came forward and complained about unwanted hugs.

“ …I know the difference between a friendly hug and a grope.”

A woman who posted on the WXMI-TV site said she stopped shopping at the store because of “inappropriate touching” by Civis, including “pulling me close, and holding me tightly, chest to chest, nuzzling my neck, stroking me and whispering things in my ear, and following me around the store.”

“ ...The behavior is not the simple ‘arm around the shoulder’ hug that’s being reported,” the woman wrote. ”I know the difference between a friendly hug and a grope.”

The woman said she chose to retain her anonymity “because there are people out there actually going to the absurd and frightening extreme of threatening the victim in this case with violence and death.”

Plumb’s CEO: ‘He Just Couldn’t Follow the Policy’

Plumb’s president and CEO James Nadar said Civis was fired two days after the woman’s initial police report in July after repeated warnings and formal complaints against him in 2012 and 2013.

After those, he was forbidden from hugging. “We don’t terminate someone for giving unwanted hugs,” Nadar told The Detroit News. “He just couldn’t follow the policy.”

In a statement, Nadar said:

“... The decision to terminate Fred Civis from our Whitehall Market was difficult. The decision came after multiple violations of our policies, one of which resulted in a criminal complaint from a shopper at our Whitehall store. Though we have received strong criticism for our decision we remain firm in our belief that the safety and comfort of our customers must always come first. …”

‘Crowding’ Guilty Plea

Civis was scheduled to appear Muskegon District Court on Oct. 15 to answer the misdemeanor assault and battery charge punishable by up to a fine of $500 and 90 days in jail. But on Friday, he pleaded guilty to “crowding,” according to a post on the Support for the Victims of Fred Civis Facebook page.

“Crowding is defined as an act that automatically leads to an aggressive crime,” according to the page. “Well, guilty is guilty.”

The plea agreement followed a Sept. 25 letter in which Civis urged community members who have supported him to let the matter die. Plumb’s would not say what, if any, considerations Civis received for writing the letter.

“... Let’s put the divisions aside and support our community,” he wrote. “Plumb’s is an important part of our community … and I strongly encourage those who have stopped shopping at Plumb’s to return.”

Whether that will stop a planned Oct. 11 boycott is unclear. In an Oct. 4 post on the boycott page, Marsha Civis announced a 9:30 a.m. that day. “We need our community support to show the corporate bully (Plumb’s) how wrong it is to throw a 40-year employee under the bus,” she wrote.

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