Who is Beryl? Office Depot worker fired for refusing to print Charlie Kirk poster
An Office Depot worker was fired after refusing to print a Charlie Kirk poster, after the video of the exchange went viral on social media, drawing backlash.
Office Depot found itself mired in controversy after an employee refused to print a Charlie Kirk poster, and the incident was posted online, drawing massive backlash. Since then, the company has issued a statement and taken corrective action.
Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed when attending an event at the Utah Valley University on September 10. Tyler Robinson has been arrested in connection with the matter.
The fracas with the Office Depot worker began when the Kalamazoo County Republican Party had placed an order for a Charlie Kirk poster, which the Office Depot staff had refused to deliver. Michigan attorney Matthew S DePerno posted on X “Today at 2:24 PM, the Kalamazoo County Republican Party #KGOP placed an order for a poster of #CharlieKirk for a vigil tonight.” He shared that at 5:30 a call came in saying the poster could not be printed, because it was ‘propaganda’.
Also Read | 'Tyler, is this you?': How a father's question revealed Charlie Kirk's shooting suspect
He then stated that FedEx had stepped up and offered to print it for free. Sharing the video, the lawyer asked if Office Depot felt this was acceptable.
The Michigan attorney identified the staff member who'd refused to print the Kirk poster as Beryl.
Who is Beryl? Office Depot staff refused to print poster
Beryl was identified as the print supervisor. The video shows a man in a red tee-shirt standing and a woman in glasses seated, with DePerno identifying Beryl as the one on the left, that is, the person who's standing.
DePerno further shared that when he called Office Depot at 5:43 pm on behalf of KGOP, he spoke to Beryl about the refusal to print the Kirk poster. “He said 'no way, it's propaganda.' He said I had to talk to Justin, the manager, on Monday,” the lawyer shared in an X post.
Office Depot, in its statement, said “We are deeply concerned by the incident that occurred at Store 3382 in Portage, Michigan. The behavior displayed by our associate is completely unacceptable and insensitive, violates our company policies, and does not reflect the values we uphold at Office Depot. We sincerely apologize to the customer affected and to our community for this regrettable situation.”
“Upon learning of the incident, we immediately reached out to the customer to address their concerns and seek to fulfill their order to their satisfaction. We also launched an immediate internal review and, as a result, the associate involved is no longer with the organization,” the statement added.
They further said “We are committed to reinforcing training with all team members to ensure our standards of respect, integrity, and customer service are upheld at every location. Our customers and communities deserve nothing less.”
Despite the course correction, Office Depot still faced flak online, with one person saying “The manager at Office Depot that refused to print a Charlie Kirk poster should be fired along with the print supervisor.”
Another remarked, “Office Depot does not want to print Charlie Kirk posters for his visual. I think it’s time that we do not shop at Office Depot anymore. Thank you.”
Yet another person said on X “Kudos to FEDEX for making posters for FREE, for a Charlie Kirk vigil, after Office Max/Office Depot refused saying it was political propaganda..”.
