Being obese is not wrong

News adapted from News.com.au , 24 August 2010.

A NAIL salon in Georgia has charged a woman having a manicure and pedicure an extra $5 because she was overweight and could damage their chairs.

Michelle Fonville, 40, of Lithonia, said she was at the Natural Nails salon getting a burnt orange color applied to her fingers and toes, along with an eyebrow wax, when she was presented with what seemed like an excessive bill.

“I said to the clerk I thought I had been accidentally overcharged, I honestly thought it was an error,” she told ABC News.

But then, Ms Fonville said, “when she came over and wrote out the prices she then said, 'I charged you five dollars more because you're overweight'."

Kim Tan, the salon manager, told ABC News' Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV that the chairs in her salon can only hold 200 pounds and cost $2500 to repair.

"Do you think that's fair when we take $24 dollars and we have to pay $2500 in repairs?" Ms Tan said.

"I said to her I'm sorry, but next time I cannot take you."

Ms Fonville said she plans to protest outside the salon later this week.

Ms Tan returned the extra $5, ABC reported.

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I felt ridiculous and upset when reading this news. Obese is not wrong, I would say so. People who are obese are also ordinary people like us. Everyone of us deserves respect from the others. Respect needs to be earned. In the news above, Ms. Fonville did not actually damage the salon's chair, nor did she act in a rude way towards the salon workers. In the theory of success entrepreneurship, customers should be the main priority for every business. Saying you are charged an extra fee just because of your big and obese body size is definitely rude and insulting. Inevitably none of us wants to be humiliated in this way after consuming a service from a shop. We would certainly hope to be replied by a warm smile and be greeted politely, "Please come again next time". Hence, instead of charging extra on obese people, which is an immature act, the salon should order a bigger size of chair especially prepared for obese people. In this way, not only different body sizes of customers are treated equally important, the salon could eventually gain a good reputation among the customers.