“Nick Shirley went undercover in Seattle and filmed a food stamp buyer ringing up one can of Spam and a tray of sushi for $120,” Shirley writes, about the video filmed at Lam’s Seafood Asian Market in the Chinatown International District.
The problem: According to Lam’s almost everything Shirley says is false, and the result has been a small grocery store fighting to clear its name against a social media onslaught of online hate.
“We had customers calling us, we had strangers, people who aren’t customers, calling us and just yelling and saying all kinds of nasty things,” said Teizi Mersai, the operations manager at Lam’s.
Shirley and the woman with him were trying to buy Fortune luncheon meat (similar to — but not Spam) and a container of spring rolls (not sushi) and, most important, they were rung up for a case of luncheon meat, not a single can. The total was $120 because it was for 24 cans of meat, not one, as Shirley said in his video.
Shirley did not respond to requests for comment.