Consumers who feel they've been singled out as potential shoplifters because of the color of their skin rarely make official complaints, choosing instead to shrug it off and share their painful stories with family and friends.

"They have normalized the treatment -- and accept it as a fact of life," said Shaun L. Gabbidon, a professor of criminal justice at Penn State's Harrisburg campus who has been looking into consumer racial profiling for several years. He spoke yesterday at the University of Pittsburgh's Center on Race and Social Problems.

Dr. Gabbidon's latest research on the subject involved a telephone survey done last fall of almost 500 people, both blacks and whites, in the Philadelphia area. Forty-three percent reported they had the experience of being treated differently while shopping because of their race.

He's convinced that, like racial profiling in traffic stops, the problem is real, but he is interested in trying to learn more about how consumers feel about the experience and how they respond. The results of the survey indicated that they don't like it but they tend to let it go.

Despite feeling angry, shocked, sad or embarrassed, 82 percent of those who said they had been racially profiled while shopping told the survey takers they never reported the experience to anyone other than their family and friends. About half still made a purchase at the store, said Dr. Gabbidon, who collaborated on the research with George Higgins from the University of Louisville.

Why buy despite the chilly reception? The offended shoppers sometimes wanted to prove they really could afford to shop in that store. Almost 40 percent even returned there to shop again.

That isn't likely to send the right message, said Dr. Gabbidon, who advocates alerting retailers about the problem. Otherwise, in his view, nothing will change. Eventually, if enough concerns are raised, a merchant worried that sales might be hurt will respond.

He became interested in the topic nearly two decades ago when he took a job after college as a store detective in a Macy's department store near Baltimore. Before long, he noticed he was getting a lot of calls to check on minority shoppers who didn't seem to have done anything suspicious. It didn't get any better after he was promoted to a store in Tysons Corner, Va. One clerk even called for him to check out himself.

Those surveyed last fall reported more than 50 percent of the employees who appeared to judge them based on race were white. But more than 20 percent were black, 11 percent were Asian-American and 5 percent were Hispanics, proving that the practice isn't limited to one group.

The majority of those doing the profiling were store clerks. "People bring their biases to work with them," said Dr. Gabbidon, who would like to see more research proving thieves come in all colors. Retailers, who really do lose a lot of money to criminals every year, might want to step up programs that train employees to focus on behavior, not race.

The situation has improved since the days when black customers weren't allowed to try on clothes in some stores, he said. Yet, even if consumers don't make a fuss about having someone follow them around stores when another shopper of a different skin color might be given free rein, he said the treatment creates unnecessary stress in people's lives.

Dr. Gabbidon hopes to learn more on the subject through future research that might look at other communities around the country or interview store clerks to study the problem from their side of the counter. He also plans to study data collected by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, a state organization charged with investigating complaints of discrimination and monitoring bias-related crimes.