Papa John’s the Popular US pizza chain was forced to fire a cashier at a New York City restaurant and had to apologise profusely when the employee referred to an Asian-American customer as “lady chinky eyes” on her receipt.

Minhee Cho, a 24-year-old communications manager at journalism group ProPublica, posted a photo of the receipt on Twitter, adding, “Hey @PapaJohns just FYI my name isn’t ‘lady chinky eyes.’”

The tweet went viral over the weekend and the photo was viewed more than 200,000 times since she posted it on Saturday afternoon.

The Kentucky-based pizza company said the employee was dismissed from the Manhattan location and issued a formal apology to Cho.

“We were extremely concerned to learn of the receipt issue in New York,” a post on Papa John’s official Facebook page said. “This act goes against our company values, and we’ve confirmed with the franchisee that this matter was addressed immediately and that the employee is being terminated. We are truly sorry for this customer’s experience.”

The owner of the franchise location, Ronald Johnson, told the New York Daily News that he was “shocked” over the incident. He said the employee responsible was a teen who he believed was misguided by “the modern culture that they’re involved in.”

Johnson said he planned on having sensitivity training to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

As this story gathers momentum being republished throughout the web and further driven via social media, what cost has lack of either or both staff recruitment and service training cost the Papa John’s brand..? Bringing in ‘sensitivity training’ post event brings horses and gates to mind.