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Crazy local mall age-policy.
Posts
I would guess he means lots of impulse buying instead of planning ahead. Which favors malls because they are made for impulse shopping.
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WHY kids should be responsible with their cash is beyond me. Teach them responsibility, make them work for rent, but beyond that let them go berserk with their cash. They've got the rest of their lives to be responsible, and a few years of saving from 16 - 19 isn't going to get them anywhere better in life.
We blew our cash on modding cars and buying videogames. While I'm not too excited to see a whole generation growing up assaulting old people in Florida, it'd be just as bad to watch a rank-and-file generation of tie wearing teens all saving their money for retirement and not even living life.
Definitely this. And I'm guessing quite a few of them are going to be going to college eventually. While I can't fault someone for wanting to have some fun during their teenage years, 16 isn't too young to at least think ahead when it comes to your money.
Edit: uean, I agree completely, but there's still a balance to be had. I spent a lot of money on guitars and amps, and my fair share on video games, but still managed to save $1000 a year for college. I had a higher paying job than most teenagers, I'd assume, but the point is you can definitely do both.
Who says they need to go to college at 19 though? Get a few years of work under your belt, life experience, and venture out to college at 21 or 22. I can't imagine a non-Carlton thinking about their future at 16. Kids are irresponsible and dumb, but that's such a great time of life, why strip it away from them....
It's mostly an "anti-crazy" rule that is put in place for the easy and no-questions-asked ejection of "problem" shoppers. If you look like you could be 18 and you aren't causing an issue, you should be fine.
Crummy rule, in general, though.
I know my aunt once tried to go in there to shop and left because the shear mass of people running around screaming fighting and not really shopping. Everyone I have known that went to the mall to buy things would do it not on a friday night they would go during the week, get what they want and go. They didn't just go there to hang out that isn't really shopping thats just treating the mall like its your friends house.
A good point.
Though the Bread Garden is delicious, and I have been known to waste an entire day in the mall just waiting for my hunger to lure me back for a second go.
There are still arcades? O:
Fuck, I wish I'd put cash into an IRA back when I was in highschool. My dad showed me the math on it when I turned 18 and he made me an offer to match me dollar for dollar.
On a related note I also wish I'd done it when I was 18
It's less that they don't spend their money, and more that they don't have that much money to spend, outside of what an accompanying parent would be giving them.
Less than half of teens are employed.
I just stick mine in a bank account or let it rot in my wallet. Buying stuff would probably be the financially sound thing for me to do.
His store's profits dropped like a rock. Customers felt like they were being harrassed, someone caught shoplifting a candy bar who had the book thrown at them would tell their family, who would stop shopping their. The cops always outside made it feel like it was crime infested.
I'm sure the local Target loved that guy... anyway it just reminds me of this
After working in a major retail bookstore, I was hoping and praying some time of rule like this would be imposed for our mall. We would probably "lose" about $100 a weekend in revenue, but we'd never have to deal with the cafe being clogged up with obnoxiously loud teenagers who grab piles of books that we have to spend hours reshelving.
Besides all of that, I'm all for kids spending more time with their parents. Which they would have to do if they have to be accompanied. So, while I can see why this may poorly affect business, I think it's still a good idea in theory.
...I sound like I'm 80 years old. Where's my cane? You dang kids!
*sigh* GET OFF MY LAWN!
(Did I really have to help you with that one?)
While you may not have rearranged books, I'm sure you did plenty of stupid stuff. I love how everyone is all "kids are the DEVIL" but guess what, you were there, you were the devil in your day, learn to laugh at it or consider a job that doesn't attract bored people
For the record, I rearranged books, and it was retarded, but it was funny at the time to my underdeveloped dumbass brain
Sincerely,
The Committee for Not Letting My Generation Turn Into My Parents
This.
This is always what happens to dying malls. They kick out the kids, the parents therefore do not want to come spend money, the mall dies.
Happens every. Single. Time.
There was a god damn mall in the middle of Downtown Omaha. Every single bus in the city had to go past it.. People 18 or under couldn't be in the mall by themselves and they didn't allow people waiting for the bus to stand inside, forcing them to be outside in the cold/extreme heat.
Now it's a parking garage.
Crossroads Mall kicked out the bus riders and kids, and now it has gone under too.
It's like they all live in a vacuum and don't see the other malls shooting themselves in the foot.
Oh man, I haven't been to Crossgates in years, now. I remember they had that policy, as well, though I can't say I ever spent too much time there on Friday and Saturday nights. Where I grew up, our local mall instituted this sort of policy a couple of years ago, as well.
Looks like it's more of a growing trend.
To be honest, I'm going on 20 and I still see that as relatively amusing.
Just imagine the position you've put hundreds of uptight parents in!
"Mommy, mommy! What's a reverse cowgirl?"
"Mommy mommy, billy said I should do a 69 to him but we don't know what it is."
Heh.
Whenever I see alarm clocks on display I also like to set them to ring 5 minutes apart from each other. I don't purposefully go into a shop to do JUST that, but if I'm there and they're there it just has to be done.
I suppose you're all going to have a go at me for being horribly immature, but just live a little. We've got enough time for mortgages and mid-life crises.
yeah. it's still in effect as far as I know, and it started like 6 years ago or something.
That's the kind of prank that usually brightened my day when I was working retail. Unless I was already having a spectacularly bad day, I'd get a big grin out of that. Wads of chewing gum stuck in between books? Not so much. But I don't want to sound like I'm pro-draconian age policy. I always made an effort to be even handed with the kids. Well, except for the ones who gave me grief directly to my face. They'd get the boot.
I JUST SWAPPED THE DUST JACKETS ON ALL THE BOOKS IN THE SCI-FI SECTION!
THIS IS EXHILARATING!
Not that everyone else here hadn't already come to that conclusion, but I'd like to repeat it because I like to think I'm smart.
Haha well yeah, I mean I never do anything nasty like stick chewing gum between books. That's just bang out of order.
But smaller things, yeah. I'd never be rude to someone either, unless they came across as accusatory or aggressive.
There was this one librarian though, man I fucking hated her. She'd always believe other people over me, you know the whole "it wasn't me, it was him" spiel that guilty kids always do? Well, she'd always believe them when they said I'd screwed around in the library.
Sometimes old people can be blind and unfair, damn old people.
Crossroads mall died because it is a shithole and no one sane wants to go there when there are better options like 2 miles away, unless it's to die.
Counterpoint; Mall of America has had this policy since a year or so after its opening when there were a few incidents of gang violence within the mall. I believe it's vacancy rate is far below the national average even in the current consumer climate, and they were thinking of expanding. I think the age limit was 18, but it has been a while since I lived in Minneapolis and actually cared about the age policy in the mall. There were expemptions for employees at the mall and they have guards near most of the major mall entrances checking IDs. At the time I thought it was some grave injustice, but then again at the time I was a retard, so there is that. Then again no teenager in that area can make the good faith claim that there is nothing else for them to do either.
Teenagers are obnoxious at malls and I don't find it hard to believe at all that they incur more in costs than they spend in income. The discretionary income of a teenager is tiny compared to that of almost any working adult.
Not the mall's problem.
Commercial real estate in general has been sumo-fucked by the recent downturn. Malls are just an extension of that.
This is questionable. Adults may have more money, but they also have better things to spend it on (big ticket electronics like TVs, vacations, cars, etc) than random shit you find in malls. Adults are also more likely to shop online or at department stores.
This policy seems very unsound economically.
Sexting
Everything inside Morse Rd, Morse Crossing, Steltzer, and Easton Way in this link: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=easton%20town%20center&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl
The area seems to do pretty well though. To the mall proper they actually do post security guards who won't let anyone that appears too young in. I've seen them turn away a few people at times. I have no idea how the off street style stores handle this though or whether they even enforce it. I know I've seen teenagers in the Barnes and Noble pretty late at night before.
I've never personally been annoyed by any teenagers other than the usual teenagers being teenagers stuff like randomly stopping for no reason and blocking walking traffic or yelling across the mall. You know, stuff that's only mildly irritating at worst.
I thought the rule was 10PM and that made more sense as the only places open that late are the Barnes and Noble and bars I believe. I think 8:30PM might be too early as there are still some stores that cater to a younger clientele still open.
There was a similar setup in an area I hung out in as a teenager. It was patrolled by a city cop. He would usually only do anything if someone was causing trouble for other patrons. For instance, I would sit outside a coffee shop drinking coffee, chain smoke, and read until about midnight every Friday and Saturday and a word was never said to me. Other teenagers would even ask "how come you don't make him leave too?" and the cop would respond "he bought something, he's sitting there reading and not bothering anyone". Unequal treatment for sure, but I didn't mind. Sort of a "don't draw unnecessary attention to yourself and I don't give a damn" policy.
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PSN : Bolthorn
Consumer spending chart here
In short, the US consumer spends a ton of money on things outside of vacations and cars. And a great deal of those items can be found within a mall. Food Away from Home alone is almost as large as the net outlay for vehicle purchases.
Furthermore, the claim that adults shop online more needs substantiation. I don't see a logical inference that would bear that out. And department stores are present in almost any indoor mall as anchors, so I fail to see how that is even at play.
According to Market Research teens spent about $153 billion in 2006. The GDP that year was just shy of $14 trillion that year (according to the CIA factbook, bea.gov was giving me lip), with consumer spending making up ~70% of that. So discriminating against them is not tantamount to financial suicide.
Until they lose their jobs because the store closes due to lack of sales.
However, this is a college town, and a MASSIVE portion of the mall's profits come from the 18-25 demographic. Stores even reduce their hours during the summer months to minimize their losses while the students are away. There have been quite a few establishments in the town that have to close down over the summer because they don't know how to handle the three month drought.
There isn't an even distribution, not by a long shot, of where they shop though. Teens in some areas simply spend most all their money at the mall. They hang out there all day, blow all their cash on concessions and crap, and go home.
So while teens only make up $153b, most of that is spent on frivilous things. A much smaller percentage of an adult's income is spent on the kind of crap you find at a mall, and is instead spent at a place like wal-mart where you can also pick up groceries and tape and baby crap - which you can't do at every mall. You can, however, find clothes for teenagers, video games, music, and food at every mall.
It's not true everywhere certainly, but I've seen firsthand a mall banning teens after hours die, a mall that had up until that point been doing quite well. Sure it doesn't kill the whole mall, but a half dozen stores going out of business in a sub optimal economic climate can bring the whole thing down.