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  • Kids these days

    Another half day of school for the public school children, so of course we got descended upon by gangs of wayward schoolchildren doing the usual things like shoplifting, roaming around in groups intimidating other customers, strutting around with their cups from Dairy Queen or any of the other nearby fast-food restaurants, and treating the furniture department as their rumpus room, sitting on all the displays and putting their feet up on everything.

    Or having pillow fights in the domestics department--that was a new one on me.

    Another new one they pulled today--we had a crowd of about 10-15 kids in front of the condoms and birth control items. They thought it would be funny to read off the names of the condoms and the instructions for their use in loud voices so everybody could hear. One kid seemed unable to vocalize any words other than "vuh-gin-a" and "douche". Judging from their laughter, this was The Joke That Was So Funny, It Caused Everybody To Die Laughing.

    We've spoken to corporate in the past about banning these kids from the store during school hours, and evidently the answer is no. All we can do is make sure LP is working on these half days and have people paying more attention to what the kids are doing around them.
    Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

    "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

  • #2
    You can't make them leave for causing a disturbance?

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    • #3
      Some stores around here have signs in the windows saying "Only two school children in the store at a time". When those two leave, then another two can come in. Though they have their registers by the front door so they can keep track of the kids.

      Maybe your store can do something similar?
      "Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did."
      George Carlin

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      • #4
        Wouldn't them reading out the directions on the condoms/douche/birth control stuff be able to be considered lewd and offensive to other customers - I should say, paying customers?
        The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

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        • #5
          Quoth jerkface11 View Post
          You can't make them leave for causing a disturbance?
          We can, with management and/or LP's approval, but they can't be everywhere at once.
          Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

          "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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          • #6
            Wow, management really need to sort this out - I work in a (major) toy shop (oh the joy) but we actually do have the ability to make judgement calls on when to throw someone out of the store - we're even encouraged to do so.
            ONI HEUIR NI FEDIR

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            • #7
              There is a shopping centre near me where school kids are not allowed to be there during school hours. So if there is a student there in uniform, there are asked to leave, or their parents are contacted. I remember reading about this in the local newspaper, but I'm not sure as to how well it has worked. At least they are trying something though.

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              • #8
                My manager had a "one kid at a time" rule in our store, and we were allowed to follow them and do whatever we wanted. Although it was always too busy to do that. The little demon spawn from the white trash and drug addicts down the street would be abandoned and go running around town and would try to steal from our store. I did feel a bit bad for them....they didn't have shoes and none had coats in the winter.
                You really need to see a neurologist. - Wagegoth

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                • #9
                  One halloween night I left a friend's house and walked down to the grocery store I worked at, as I came walking up the strip mall there were 2 supervisors about halfway down looking winded and headed for the store. Apparently 3 middle-school aged kids had come in and shoplifted eggs...that were on sale for 35 cents a dozen.

                  Down by the courthouse there's a corner store with a sign in the window that says "no students during school hours" one of the city high schools is blocks away so I could see them having problems with this.
                  "Ride the spiral to the end, it may just go where no one's been. Spiral out, keep going..." -Lateralus

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                  • #10
                    We generally have to deal with it every day anyway after school hours as they're heading home (my mall is literally across the road from a public high school, and they ALL come in after its finished. Don't steal, but they just flood in and flood out, leaving everything a mess (i.e we have 3 cabinets with matching displays of the mobile phones we sell, all secured and tethered to the wall), they pull and play and stuff around with the dummy phones until they're dirty, and the tether is near-broken.

                    I know many businesses in the mall have been asked by the State Government here to report any of them in the mall during school hours that attempt to purchase something, or who are just wandering to the school and parents. You don't see many during the day now.

                    My worst bother was a bunch of kids (I'd say 6 maybe 7 years old) that just wandered in most days around the busy xmas period and just wrecked havoc. No parents anywhere, they just roamed the mall ALL day and all night (saw them as late as around 9:30pm one night as I was going home after closing, almost ran them over!). Its hard to kick out young kids during summer as well.. they got the point in the end though after we made sure they couldnt have fun with ANYTHING.
                    - Boochan

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                    • #11
                      While I think it's unfair to ban all kids because of the ones causing hell at your store, or limit the number of kids allowed in at once, I don't see why you can't just throw them out when they start acting up.
                      They're not customers, they're just an annoyance to employees and people who are actually spending money there.

                      I say intimmidate them enough to where they don't want to ever come back and if they run to mommy and daddy about it you can present the parents with a dry cleaning bill for the furniture they dirtied while treating your store like their own little club house.

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                      • #12
                        Quoth rerant View Post
                        While I think it's unfair to ban all kids because of the ones causing hell at your store, or limit the number of kids allowed in at once, I don't see why you can't just throw them out when they start acting up.
                        They're not customers, they're just an annoyance to employees and people who are actually spending money there.

                        I say intimmidate them enough to where they don't want to ever come back and if they run to mommy and daddy about it you can present the parents with a dry cleaning bill for the furniture they dirtied while treating your store like their own little club house.
                        Which is pretty much what we do. Problem was, yesterday we had a truck to fill so we had to concentrate on that instead of the kids causing mayhem around us.

                        I did hear the floor people telling the kids to move along a couple times.
                        Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

                        "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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                        • #13
                          Thursdays are late-start days around here for the local schools, so in the morning there is always a horde of kids wandering around the store. We usually have the opening head clerk stand by the door and keep an eye on them to make sure they behave. Sometimes we'll find half-drunk Rockstar cans on the shelves, and some things missing.
                          Last edited by Eddie The 'Ead; 03-21-2008, 02:36 PM.
                          DS Andy Cartwright: Everyone and their mums is packin’ round here!
                          Nicholas Angel: Like who?
                          DS Andy Wainwright: Farmers.
                          Nicholas Angel: Who else?
                          DS Andy Cartwright: Farmers’ mums.

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                          • #14
                            The Sam Goody (Music, videos, video games, etc) I worked at was located halfway between a middle school and high school. During the high school rush, I got to park myself in Book Heaven and "read" trying to catch the person stealing wrestling DVDs. During the middle school rush, well, we became, literally, an unpaid babysitter. This one kid would come in EVERY day and just hang out, bugging us, playing on the display games until his Dad would come and pick him up.
                            SC: “Yeah, Bob’s Company. I'm Bob. It's my company.” - GK
                            SuperHotelWorker made my Avi!!

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