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As requested by DGoddessChardonnay, my story on mall-walkers. Darn computer ate what I was working on so I've got to start from scratch...
A friend of mine, much younger (met him through our mutual hobby), was a mall manager for a major mall in our area. Unfortunately, he got the job just as malls were starting to lose their allure. For the first time ever the mall had empty stores and there wasn't a line to get in. The owners were worried and started to grasp at straws. One of those was a mall-walking group who supposedly just formed and wanted to use their mall. Management saw $$$ and readily agreed.
Now friend had done his research. Talking with other mall management showed that these people were so far beyond entitled it wasn't funny. They had no hesitation pulling the age or race card every time the mall tried to stop them breaking rules. Friend told mall owners this was a _bad_ idea. But the group promised to behave themselves and would bring a lot of revenue to the mall by shopping and eating.
So Friend had these people forced on him. But at least he got management to let him set up rules. These included:
1) All mall-walkers had to use one specific entrance on the first floor and would be allowed in two hours before the mall opened, they were not to ask for early entry
2) Mall-walkers were restricted to a certain portion of the mall, which was still a pretty big area
3) One bathroom would be cleaned early and available, the rest were off limits until the mall opened
4) Mall-walkers were not to harass custodians, obey security and were not to bother store employees
5) The Mall-walker's leadership could talk with restaurants in that section about opening early for them, but were not to make promises they couldn't keep or demand they open early
The group's leadership agreed to all this. They got one restaurant to open early with the promise of much business.
And the first day saw the mall-walkers breaking every rule. They tried to get in just about every entrance and got miffed when told they had to go to the one approved entrance. When they did get in they wandered outside the proscribed area and opened other doors to let their friends in. They tried to get into bathrooms not yet cleaned and walked over wet floors. Security was ignored. And the restaurant served _two_ meals the first day, and I think for the five days they tried this experiment they served less than a dozen meals total. They stopped after that and were harassed by the mall-walkers. They harassed stores to open early. Many refused to leave after the mall opened but didn't shop, either continuing to march around the mall and/or harass shoppers.
This went on and there were a large number of complaints: from custodians, from security, from store owners and employees and even a few from customers. Now the mall owners wanted Friend to kick them out. He reminded them of his warning, and that these people would play the age/race cards and threaten a lawsuit So he started filming everything. Finally he confronted their leadership and told them unless group started following the rules they would not be allowed to mall-walk anymore. Cue the entitlement, the age/race cards and threats of a lawsuit.
He showed them the film of their people breaking the rules, arguing with security, harassing store employees and customers, and everything else. The group realized they'd been shown for what they were. That Friday was the last time the mall-walkers were allowed in.
Friend was relieved, until the group went to the media claiming discrimination. But he showed the film to the news crew and they agreed that they hadn't been given the truth from the group. And further research indicated this wasn't a new group but an old one with a new name, who'd been kicked out of another mall for breaking the rules. The TV station dropped the story, which really could have hurt the mall.
For the rest of his time there whenever the mall owners had a 'brilliant idea' he would just remind them of their decision on the mall-walkers and say "are you really sure you want to do that?" Usually got them to rethink their ideas...
A friend of mine, much younger (met him through our mutual hobby), was a mall manager for a major mall in our area. Unfortunately, he got the job just as malls were starting to lose their allure. For the first time ever the mall had empty stores and there wasn't a line to get in. The owners were worried and started to grasp at straws. One of those was a mall-walking group who supposedly just formed and wanted to use their mall. Management saw $$$ and readily agreed.
Now friend had done his research. Talking with other mall management showed that these people were so far beyond entitled it wasn't funny. They had no hesitation pulling the age or race card every time the mall tried to stop them breaking rules. Friend told mall owners this was a _bad_ idea. But the group promised to behave themselves and would bring a lot of revenue to the mall by shopping and eating.
So Friend had these people forced on him. But at least he got management to let him set up rules. These included:
1) All mall-walkers had to use one specific entrance on the first floor and would be allowed in two hours before the mall opened, they were not to ask for early entry
2) Mall-walkers were restricted to a certain portion of the mall, which was still a pretty big area
3) One bathroom would be cleaned early and available, the rest were off limits until the mall opened
4) Mall-walkers were not to harass custodians, obey security and were not to bother store employees
5) The Mall-walker's leadership could talk with restaurants in that section about opening early for them, but were not to make promises they couldn't keep or demand they open early
The group's leadership agreed to all this. They got one restaurant to open early with the promise of much business.
And the first day saw the mall-walkers breaking every rule. They tried to get in just about every entrance and got miffed when told they had to go to the one approved entrance. When they did get in they wandered outside the proscribed area and opened other doors to let their friends in. They tried to get into bathrooms not yet cleaned and walked over wet floors. Security was ignored. And the restaurant served _two_ meals the first day, and I think for the five days they tried this experiment they served less than a dozen meals total. They stopped after that and were harassed by the mall-walkers. They harassed stores to open early. Many refused to leave after the mall opened but didn't shop, either continuing to march around the mall and/or harass shoppers.
This went on and there were a large number of complaints: from custodians, from security, from store owners and employees and even a few from customers. Now the mall owners wanted Friend to kick them out. He reminded them of his warning, and that these people would play the age/race cards and threaten a lawsuit So he started filming everything. Finally he confronted their leadership and told them unless group started following the rules they would not be allowed to mall-walk anymore. Cue the entitlement, the age/race cards and threats of a lawsuit.
He showed them the film of their people breaking the rules, arguing with security, harassing store employees and customers, and everything else. The group realized they'd been shown for what they were. That Friday was the last time the mall-walkers were allowed in.
Friend was relieved, until the group went to the media claiming discrimination. But he showed the film to the news crew and they agreed that they hadn't been given the truth from the group. And further research indicated this wasn't a new group but an old one with a new name, who'd been kicked out of another mall for breaking the rules. The TV station dropped the story, which really could have hurt the mall.
For the rest of his time there whenever the mall owners had a 'brilliant idea' he would just remind them of their decision on the mall-walkers and say "are you really sure you want to do that?" Usually got them to rethink their ideas...
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