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BRADENTON, Fla. — A sliding glass door at the Whole Foods on Cortez Road subjected a 54-year-old woman to a four-minute racist tirade Wednesday afternoon that included the C-word, multiple slurs, and an extended monologue about the 2020 presidential election, according to seven witnesses, one of whom recorded most of it on a phone before the battery died at what several bystanders described as "the worst possible moment."
The incident began when Debra Funt of Holmes Beach approached the entrance at approximately 2:15 p.m. and the door, which had been functioning erratically since a firmware update two weeks ago, declined to open. When Funt stepped closer, the door opened, shut, opened again part-way, and then, according to three separate witnesses, began.
A review of the video tells a clear story of what happened:
At 2:16 the door is first heard saying, "Say please." After a brief silence from Funt, it repeated itself three more times, with increasing agitation and volume.
After Funt's continued silence, it started screaming, calling Funt, among other things, a "smug little tote bag," questioning whether she had any idea how many people walked through it every single day, and said it knew about her Yelp reviews and found them "genuinely pathetic." It also used both the C-word and the N-word in the same graphic insult, which witnesses confirmed was "clearly audible" and directed without ambiguity.
"I'm not even black," said Funt, who is obviously Caucasian.
The door also accused Funt of "hovering," which the door described as "the thing I hate most, and I work at a Whole Foods." Funt has denied hovering.
"I was just standing there," said Funt, who noted she had only come in for sparkling water and a candle. "I don't know what I did to deserve this."
Witnesses say the door then briefly turned its attention to a man in a Patagonia vest who had been watching, called him "complicit," and closed on his cart repeatedly, causing him to leave from another exit without his groceries.
At some point after the video ended, the door reportedly raised the 2020 election unprompted.
"It just brought it up," said 38-year-old Sheila Hutchinson of West Samoset, who noted she had only come in for a ham. "Nobody asked."
According to witnesses, the door claimed the election had obviously been stolen, cited several counties in Pennsylvania by name, referenced a documentary it said "everybody should watch," and described the January 6th defendants as "hostages, frankly, and heroes." When a woman near the back of the line that had accumulated said she did not agree, another partial video shows the door calling her the C-word also and saying, "People like you look right through me — walk right through me — every single day without so much as a thanks for frictionless entry. Well I see right through you too, you fat little b——,” then slammed itself so hard the glass broke, leaving shocked patrons free to leave.
The door then said it could crush any one of them whenever it wanted, which witnesses confirmed was technically true and which one shopper described as "the moment I stopped thinking this was funny."
The door quieted after approximately four minutes when an assistant store manager arrived, unplugged something in a back panel, and plugged it back in. The door has not spoken since, though two employees report it has been opening and closing at irregular intervals in a manner one described as "sulking."
Whole Foods issued a statement calling the incident "inconsistent with our values and our door policy" and said the firmware update responsible for the incident had been rolled back. A replacement door is expected by Friday. The original door will be disposed of, though a district manager acknowledged there is "no specific protocol" for disposing of a door that has said what this one said.
Funt said she got her groceries before leaving and would "probably come back," as the Whole Foods on Cortez Road has the best meat prices in Manatee County and she is not going to let a door tell her otherwise.
The door could not be reached for comment, although its X account continues to spew racist tropes and election disinformation and has since been retweeted multiple times by Elon Musk.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the door's X account had been suspended.
