Posted on 08/03/2005 12:38:05 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Notice: Mall rats no longer allowed.
Following the lead of many shopping centers throughout the country, both the Eastfield Mall and the Holyoke Mall (both in Mass.) will soon start requiring young shoppers to be accompanied by a parent or guardian in an effort to prevent loitering by teens looking to simply hang out.
As of Sept. 6, the Holyoke Mall is restricting anyone younger than 18 from entering the mall without an escort on Fridays and Saturdays after 4 p.m., while the Eastfield Mall in Springfield is targeting those under 15, after 5 p.m. every day of the week.
``Why would you want to come with your mom?,'' asked Cindy Mariano, 16, of Lynn.
Sitting with two friends outside the CambridgeSide Galleria, sipping on some drinks, Mariano doesn't see the rationale behind these rules. Neither do some parents.
Laurie Halt, 42, of Vineyard Haven, prefers to know her two teenage boys are at a mall rather than somewhere else.
``I think it's ridiculous to ban kids at a certain time . . . where are they going to be?'' she said.
But Arlene Putman, general manager of the Eastfield Mall, said the new rules are more of a child-protection issue.
``We've been quite concerned that parents have dropped their kids off and left them on their own for three, four hours at a time,'' Putman said.
John Franklin, 21, of Somerville, says if it's for safety issues, then he understands.
``It's a great rule. It's (the mall) just another place for people to hang out and waste time,'' he said.
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, many of the country's 1,100 malls have similar policies.
However, Michael Tesler, president of Retail Concepts, doesn't think this is a growing trend. Teenagers are a mall's biggest consumers, he says, and malls should find a less-combative solution.
``As long as you can create a situation where they're not bothering consumers, what's the harm?'' said Tesler. ``Acting like a high school principal is not the way to act with customers.''
This is a good thing... The mall is not a substitute for a parent or a baby sitter.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
They discuss the Eastfield Mall & Holyoke mall, but interview a kid from Lynn? Lynn is over 1 1/2 hours away from either mall. Even the language is different.
Really, I've seen the malls used as a walking club for old people and mothers with strollers. They are not even there to shop, just to socialize and exercise. To not allow teenagers to shop and socialize with their peers is a bit discriminating imo.
"To not allow teenagers to shop and socialize with their peers is a bit discriminating imo."
The average teen, yes, but I am sure this ordinance is in response to unruly, baggy-pantsed hooligans intimidating older persons with their sneering and rude language. In this PC society the innocent must suffer for the acts of the few. To selectivly exclude the actual offenders would surely bring in the ACLU slime.
I would have been in real trouble at this mall.
I was married and in college at 17, and my parents lived about 200 miles away.
I guess my wife could have taken me. She was 18 at the time.
BTW we will have been married 38 years in September.
The malls should enforce rules against loitering perhaps, but carding kids to restrict entry into what is essentially a public place, is overkill, IMO. Its always easier to ban than it is to police, isnt it??..
What the heck? Can you say d-i-s-c-r-i-m-i-na-t-i-o-n? The mall can do whay they want, but I smell lawsuit
This is pretty dumb.
Malls have long been one of the top places teens go to hang out.
This will kill their business.
What exactly is "loitering" in a mall? Half the time you are standing around doing nothing.
I think this rule is ridiculous.
Most people sitting and talking in the food court would be "loitering."
I think you're the only person on this thread who gets it.
There is no rule that security officers can't remove unruly customers.
Your argument is off the mark.
If you had ever run a small retail business with limited staff, you would know just how expensive being overwhelmed by large numbers of kids can be. Only a minority steal, but you can't I.D. the problem kids until you catch them. In all my working experience I had only one kid come up to me and report another kid for shoplifting. A thousand bucks worth of stock can go out the door almost as fast as it came in. It doesn't take much of that to hurt a small retailer.
Our mall stores are all equipped with the anti theft things attached to clothes. So I don't for a minute think it has to do with shoplifting.
I think they would have done better to hire security and get rid of the trouble makers rather than throw out the baby with the bathwater.
They make aluminum foil bags to prevent the scanners from reading the magnetic strips. The directions are all over the net. It also has to do with the fact that people do not go into business as babysitters, unless they open a day care center. If all the kids acted with reasonable maturity, it would be no problem, truth is, a lot of kids don't.
Extra security does not come free.
I love kids, and grandkids, but if any of mine acted like many I've had to deal with, I'd have chained them to a ring on the floor.
I mean, kids hanging at the mall is hardly a threat to national security.
Good grief...I'm so far behind, I did not know aluminum foil was so handy.
But the loss they will feel from PO teens and parents who will now refuse to shop at the mall is probably going to be as much if not more than the shoplifting losses.
Also I don't see how having to go into a mall with your parent is going to stop shoplifting...if they are able to hide from security they can surely hide their thieving from distracted mom.
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