So I was just Christmas shopping today at the mall, and sure enough, I’m walking by the f.y.e. and what do I see there to annoy me but a taped up sign saying “All f.y.e customers under age 15 must be accompanied by an adult at all times.”
Ugh. So, I then had to abandon my Christmas shopping for a bit and go out to my car to get my trusty flyer about how age discrimination is illegal in Maryland. I returned to the store to try to talk to an employee about it and get them to remove the sign.
Except, being five days before Christmas, the store was super busy!
I skulked around for like an hour before I finally gave up and left, deciding to try again some other time. While I was there, noticed a few interesting things.
For one, they weren’t actually enforcing this policy. I saw some kids who were definitely under 15 and didn’t have any adults with them who were in there, and employees never bothered them. Okay, so the sign is a lie. That’s always nice. Just needs to be non-existent.
There was also an older man who may have shoplifted. He walked out and the alarm thing went off, and one of the employees called after him, but the man kept walking. Employee didn’t make any further attempt to retrieve the man, who was walking pretty quickly (making it all the more likely that he’d stolen something). I entertained the thought of chasing after the man myself and telling him to go back. Maybe the f.y.e. store would have been so pleased I stopped a shoplifter, that they’d offer to do something for me in return, at which point I’d have told them to remove the signs. Oh, that would so have fulfilled my childhood dreams of heroism!
Another thing that happened was a 7-year-old boy who was wandering around the store alone calling out for his dad. He was left alone for a bit before one of the employees finally offered to call mall security to help him find his dad. But a couple minutes later, the boy’s dad was finally found.
Seeing all this made it feel all the more weird to confront them about the signs, even if I were able to find any employee who wasn’t already busy. Whatever, though. They’ll hear from us. 😀
I’m glad to hear that the employees are not as ageist as whoever made the sign in the first place. But unenforced rules are still rules, and they become even harder to eliminate because no one is hurt by an unenforced rule. Kind of like smoking weed. Tons of people do it, but the cops (at least around here) don’t place priority on enforcing it. Not many people care about the law, because they are unlikely to feel its effects.
Awww. I was hoping that terror would be struck into the hearts of the employees just as it was with the Great Pet Store Incident. :p