Frank Swanson was fired from his work as a Walmart cashier just 20 days short of hitting the milestone of 20 years of employment. The reason for it has a community outraged, threatening a boycott if the big box store doesn’t bring him back. However, Walmart’s not budging, calling what he did “gross.”

Frank has been associated with the Walmart in West Plains, Missouri, for twenty years, and for many customers, he was the only genuine human interaction they had all day. Some probably spread out their shopping over the course of the week, just to be cheered up by the hardworking 56-year-old employee who was always cheerful. However, the management was extremely outraged by what he had been doing to clients all along.

Even though he had been engaging in this daily routine for nearly 20 years, management decided that Frank was not welcome at their store anymore. He consistently provided outstanding customer service and a pleasant attitude, and he never missed a shift, but it wasn’t enough for the store, which let this mildly disabled man go. Irate customers have excellent reason to think it’s something else because they fired him on the basis of a theft claim involving a few pennies.

The company got rid of him for “good customer service,” as Swanson, 52, told ATTN. He said, he would often hug customers, who “wouldn’t probably get a hug any other time,” including older women.

Since a childhood accident left him crippled, Frank Swanson’s brother, Drexel Swanson, told ATTN that his brother’s major goal in life is to “make others feel good about themselves and to bring a smile to their face.” He claims that Frank does this by hugging people, but he is considerate of their personal space and only extends the hug to those who accept after he asks. Before finally terminating him for a price match discount on sweet tea, Walmart had previously forewarned him about their dislike of the hugs. However, Swanson changed his approach, after management instructed him to stop hugging customers without their consent in January as he claimed.

But Swanson was fired for reasons that go beyond simple hugs.

Frank, who is devoted to every aspect of a job that most people wouldn’t take half as seriously, memorizes competitors’ weekly ads because Walmart encourages price matching. So, when a customer asked if he could price-match a single beverage for her but didn’t have the other store’s ad to prove the price, Frank knew what they were selling it for and rang her up at the slightly discounted rate. The West Plains Walmart considered these few cents theft and terminated him for it.

Swanson claimed that it was over less than a dollar. He stated that he offered to match the price of an item that was sold at .50 cents.

“I was checking out a lady who had some iced tea. Someone had it on sale in town,” he said.

Swanson claimed that he had seen the Red Diamond Ice Tea ad in the paper that he keeps in the break room, despite the fact that the woman didn’t have a circular ad with her.

The ad had been conveniently taken down by the time Frank got to the break room to show he was correct. And because the customer allegedly failed to provide the ad in order to match the pricing, managers fired Frank.

His brother Drexel said, “Frank drove to Willow Springs this morning and had them go back into their archived papers, and just like Frank remembered, in the bottom right corner there was an ad for Red Diamond Iced Tea on sale at G&W Willow Springs for $1.98 and the Walmart Frank works at price matches Willow Springs.”

Sources: americasfreedomfighters, people, theamericangenius