Costco worker allegedly called her racist names in Spanish. She turned around and confronted him in the language he thought she didn’t speak

TikTok creator Kenya shared a video of her confrontation with a Costco employee that began after she accused the worker of speaking about her in Spanish, apparently assuming she wouldn’t understand him. According to the shopper, the remarks included telling another woman that she “looked Indian,” a claim the employee denied on camera.

The roughly 40-second clip appears to pick up after the initial exchange had already happened, so it doesn’t capture what was said before recording started. What it does capture is the customer confronting him directly. “You were just talking about me in Spanish, not knowing that I speak Spanish. You told the other girl that I look Indian,” she says. His response is immediate: “No. On my mother’s life.”

She doesn’t accept the denial. “You did. You did. Put it on something. You’re a liar. Don’t do that,” she says. “You disrespected me in another language, thinking I would not understand you, and I did. And my heart is beating so hard. That’s not okay.”

The confrontation doesn’t end there

She also brings up how much she’d spent in the store that day. “I just spent over $300 in here. You’re not gonna call me names?” she asks, adding, “I’m not Indian. I understood you. You look white, and you’re not. So there’s that. I feel disrespected.” The employee then offers, “Can I get you some water?” and she accepts, saying, “Sure. Please. ‘Cause at this point…” before the clip ends. Her complaint isn’t about the money itself, but about how she says she was treated after being recognized as someone who understood the conversation.

The comments were split over the interaction. One person wrote about a relative’s experience: “my mom had a bad experience yesterday by a Costco employee bc she didn’t speak English then started laughing and making disrespectful remarks towards her.” Another pushed back on the premise entirely: “how is saying you look Indian an insult?? your nutzo.” 

A third pointed toward what to do next: “Contact the warehouse manager or call Costco customer service. I had a call where a member had a similar situation… The associate got fired.” That suggestion echoes the kind of advice often given when shoppers believe they were treated differently by store employees.

The video cuts off with the employee offering her water, leaving the rest of the interaction unseen. What happened before the recording began remains outside the clip, with the confrontation itself ending without a clear resolution.