A Black woman entrepreneur found herself having to correct a locksmith when he challenged her status as the owner of a business where he was hired to change locks.
Shelita Meadows, the franchise owner and operator of a Chick-fil-A in Chesapeake, Virginia, took to social media to recall the moments a locksmith questioned her identity.
In a video that’s garnered more than 15 million views on TikTok, Meadows explained that her husband works for her as the site’s facilities and maintenance man. When she needed the locks changed on the restaurant doors, he was the one to call a vendor to get it done.
When the locksmith showed up a few days later, he expected to meet with a man he assumed was the owner, and not Meadows, a Black woman.
And he made his assumptions to Meadows’ face with certainty and pure audacity.
“‘I need to get the OK from the owner,'” Meadows recalled the man telling her. “I said, ‘Here’s the OK.’ He said, ‘No ma’am, I need you to go get the owner so I can make sure it is OK with him for me to get started.”
When Meadows tells him point-blank that she is the owner, the locksmith doesn’t believe her and explains that he was hired by a man he spoke to on the phone.
And with even more nerve, he held up a finger to Meadows’ face while he dialed her husband, whom he assumed was the owner.
It didn’t take long for her husband to confirm that Meadows was indeed the owner, leaving the locksmith to face her again sheepishly.
“He went from confident contractor to Windows 95 error screen,” Meadows said. “He said, ‘Alright, ma’am, I can get the OK from you.’ I said, ‘You could, but you won’t. I will pay someone else to accomplish that task today.'”
Meadows left the locksmith with some words of wisdom before dismissing him completely:
“The task I have for you is, remember, moving forward, it is a lot cheaper to show respect than it is to lose out on a contract or an opportunity,” Meadows said, capping off the conversation in classic Chick-fil-A fashion: “It’s been a pleasure to serve you.”
Viewers flooded the comments with pride and support for how Meadows shut down the man’s sexism.
“Shelita for President, bc nothing runs as smoothly as a chick fil a and this woman don’t play. 👑,” one TikTok user wrote.
“Soooooo what day we going to SHELITA’S chik-fil-a,” another person added.
