Posted on 09/27/2010 1:32:31 PM PDT by MissTed
On Friday and Saturday nights, at an increasing number of malls across the country, teenagers are being forced to bring along the one person they'd most likely rather leave behind: a parent.
Dozens of malls now have what they call a "parental escort policy," meaning teens under the age of 18 have to be with a parent or guardian who is 21 or over to enter. Most shopping centers have these restrictions only on weekend evenings, but some keep them in place seven days a week.
The Mid Rivers Mall in St. Louis, Mo., started sending away teens at the end of May, and it has resulted in both more customers and sales. After a month, overall mall traffic was up 5 percent on Friday and Saturday nights, and sales were up 3 to 10 percent in all categories, including teen-oriented retailers, according to the property's management.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Negative. They don't want to behave? Treat them like criminals. See some punk with his pants around his butt? It should be a community responsibility for three or four able bodied men to kick his teeth in. Other crimes dealt with accordingly.
The Mall of America started the trend in 1996. On Friday and Saturday nights any child under age 16 must be escorted by an adult over 21.
around here the economy is taking care of that problem by emptying the malls of merchants
Twenty years too late. Better late than never, I guess.
How would you explain this (from the third paragraph in the excerpt)?
The Mid Rivers Mall in St. Louis, Mo., started sending away teens at the end of May, and it has resulted in both more customers and sales. After a month, overall mall traffic was up 5 percent on Friday and Saturday nights, and sales were up 3 to 10 percent in all categories
If you read the article you'll see that mall traffic and revenue went UP after the parental escort rules went into effect. I can tell you that if they get the thugs out of the mall near here we'll consider returning.
That’s my pet peeve about many malls and stores nowadays, the music. They pipe in such God awful music. I don’t know if it’s rap or heavy metal or what they call it, but it’s enough to make you not want to be there.
Maybe if they play Frank Sinatra or Perry Como or classical, the atmosphere in the malls would change.
“It’s common practice for “parents” to drop off a carload of kids at places like malls, to let them roam, unsupervised, with their nasty attitudes.”
A few years ago, my daughter was invited by a friend to go to the mall on a Saturday afternoon. She was 11 or 12 and having moved frequently she didn’t have much social life. I let her go (she hates the mall btw). I was horrified to find that the mom had dropped a van load of girls at the mall and left them for hours. IIRC, my daughter heard a pretty good rant about how inappropriate that was. At least my daughter had a good time. She came home with mostly candy :(
After living over seas for many years, our family hates malls now. They’re filled mostly with rude, freakish people.
They started this policy locally after a massive brawl in the movie theater and neighboring food court.
Unfortunately the majority of good kids have to pay for the horrible behavior by a bunch of gang members.
Piping in Mozart and Vivaldi works wonders at keeping the mall rats away!
The majority do behave --and most importantly, spend their money. Unfortunately, it's been made difficult for proprietors to single out the misbehaving youths so they have to enact blanket policies that punish all of them.
I could never understand parents allowing this. There is an assumption that teens “need” to hang out or congregate in big nasty groups together. That is the opposite of what they need to be doing.
Keeping track of your children and their circle of friends is important.
I particularly like the tramp stamps & butt cracks with thong “panties” showing./s
Last time I was in a mall, Ronald Reagan was president, Pac-Man was the popular videogame and “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” was playing at the Cineplex. I took a 17-year-old girl to see it and afterwards, we went to buy an Orange Julius.
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