As a Black franchise owner stood in the lobby of her own Chick-fil-A, a locksmith stared her down and delivered a stinging accusation: she was an imposter, and he wasn’t taking orders from her to complete a service. He messed around and found out after the owner described the satisfying moment that cost him more than what he may have bargained for.
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Shelita Jaclyn documents her daily outfits, motherhood journey and other life moments on TikTok. The viral storm began on Feb. 27, when she shared the details of a routine maintenance call gone wrong.
Her husband—who works as the facilities manager for her Chick-fil-A franchise in Chesapeake, Virginia—had hired a locksmith to change the locks. Upon the contractor’s arrival a couple of days later, Shelita described how she stepped out of the restaurant’s kitchen to approve the work, but the contractor’s response was—according to her—anything but friendly.
The unidentified locksmith insisted on speaking to the male who had contacted him by phone. He told her, “No ma’am, I need you to go get the owner so I can make sure it is okay with him,” even after she introduced herself as the owner. “The person I talked to on the phone was a man,” he added.
Shelita said the man had “his finger in my face as if to tell me, ‘Shhhh’” as he called the male he spoke to (her husband) for confirmation. It was then where he had to eat his words—no pun intended. Her husband told the contractor, “Sir, that’s not my restaurant. That’s my wife’s restaurant. Her name is Shelita. Is she not there?”
She recalled the man went from “confident contractor to Windows 95 error screen” after ending the phone call abruptly. But the exchange didn’t end there.
The contractor told Shelita he could now begin working, to which she replied: “You could, but you won’t. I will pay someone else to accomplish that task today.” *mic drop*
“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,” Shelita added.
Her TikTok has since garnered over 3.3 million likes and a bevy of comments applauding how she handled the incident. “I’m getting Olivia Pope vibes,” one person wrote. A second added, “That’s a Chick-fil-A I’d gladly purchase from.”
She concluded her story time with an encouraging message to women: “Remember, I don’t care if you are a doctor, a nurse an entrepreneur […] or just a woman trying to find her way, you are a boss! You were born a boss. You’ve already been chosen. Don’t shrink yourself in a room that you help build.”
Shelita added: “God didn’t stop at Adam for a reason.”
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