DETROIT, Mich. (WXYZ) — Hundreds of people lined up at Mike's Fresh Market on Livernois Avenue on Detroit's west side, expecting to receive free groceries — only to find out the giveaway was never real.
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The flyer, which spread across social media, claimed the store was holding an official grocery giveaway. But longtime store manager Mareeca Boyd says the promotion was fabricated.
"Someone sent a flyer out for our store saying that we were giving away free groceries and come to find out it was just a scam," Boyd said.
Boyd says a real giveaway did take place — but at the store's eastside location the day before, after YouTuber MD Motivator donated tens of thousands of dollars to help customers pay for their groceries.
"That was great that someone was actually doing that for the community," customer Jonathan said.
Somehow, that eastside event transformed into a different story online, drawing crowds to the wrong location.
"The police were called, I guess they had chaos early this morning, they had a long line," Boyd said.
I saw several people arrive expecting free groceries only to find out the giveaway wasn't there.
For Diamond Jackson, who came hoping to get help with her grocery bill, the discovery was frustrating.
"I was a little bit more upset because people wasted their gas, their time, and even used their lunch breaks to come here," Jackson said.
Jackson, who is currently unemployed, said she was counting on the extra help.
"There's people out there that really need those things," Jackson said.
Boyd says the store was also caught off guard by the false flyer and had no way to stop it from spreading.
"There's nothing you can do about it when there's something on the internet or anything, we don't know who did it so, I'm sorry and we apologize," Boyd said.
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