Black Group to Boycott East San Diego Discount Store : Dispute: Woman says she was attacked by a Korean vendor after trying to return clothing. The vendors blame her.

A dispute between a black community organization and owners of a market in East San Diego escalated Wednesday when the group announced a boycott of the store.

The dispute between the African American Organizing Project and owners of Fam Mart Discount Store at 1755 Euclid Ave. began in December after a black shopper said she was attacked by a vendor when she attempted to return merchandise for a larger size.

Rhonda Johnson, 42, of Southeast San Diego said she went to the store Dec. 13 to exchange an outfit she had purchased for her fiance, former San Diego Charger defensive tackle Houston Ridge, when the vendor she approached became enraged.

“He kept saying, ‘Not my merchandise,’ then threw the garment in my daughter’s and my face,” she said. “While we argued with him, another merchant jumped me from behind and started hitting me in the back and head with his hands.”

Johnson said that, before she knew it, she and her daughter, Bobette Woods, 22, were fighting with the two men. She said she never received an acceptable explanation or apology from the manager or the vendors and eventually took her complaint to the AAOP.

Young C. Chun, a part-owner of Fam Mart, which rents space to 60 individual vendors, said he later learned that the merchandise Johnson tried to exchange had been purchased from another vendor. He also said he was told by the vendors that Johnson initiated the fight by throwing the merchandise at the vendor.

Greg Akili, an organizer for the AAOP, said the issue began as a communication breakdown which, “unfortunately, is a large part of the problem.”

The group said it made several proposals to the store owners in an attempt to avoid a major conflict between the black community, which accounts for most of the store’s customers, and the Korean merchants who own 54 of the 60 vendor stalls at the store.

Because no agreement has been reached, demonstrators will begin picketing the store at noon Saturday, Akili said.

“One of the things we’re trying to avoid is what happened in New York and Los Angeles by making specific proposals that would improve communication,” Akili said.

In Los Angeles last month, a Korean merchant allegedly shot and killed a black teen-ager after the girl placed a bottle of orange juice in her knapsack and approached the counter to pay. The merchant claimed the gun fired accidentally.

In Brooklyn, a Korean grocer was acquitted of attacking a black woman inside his store in January, 1990. That incident led to a long boycott of the market.

Fam Mart has advertised its vacant space for rent in the black media in order to encourage black vendors to rent stalls inside the store, Davis said.

“Fifty percent of the available vacant space will be reserved for a specific amount of time for African-American vendors,” she said.

Only one of the market’s 60 businesses, Spin Off Records, is owned by a black merchant.

“If you’ve got the money, anybody can rent here,” said Sheridan Harris, Spin Off’s manager. “That’s the thing. Not everybody can handle it.”

Fam Mart rents space to vendors at $2.55 a square foot, Chun said.