Corner Brook store restricts student customers

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High school students in Corner Brook, N.L., say the Dollarama discount store is limiting their noon hour access to the shop, a restriction the students are calling age discrimination.

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What if you set up shop in a neighbourhood with a lot of people of a certain race or ethnicity nearby, and then surprise, surprise, most of your shoplifters ended up being from that particular race? And then you said, "Okay, new policy - only three [race] people in the store at a time"?

I think that wouldn't go over very well. Understandably.

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I also didn't think it was fair when the security guards for a mall food court in Kingston which was located near a high school and a government office building enforced a strict 15 minute time limit on the teenagers from the high school eating their lunch there, but let the suits hang out for their whole lunch break.

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And I wouldn't call race discrimination equivalent to trying to mitigate the behaviour of rowdy young people.

About ten years ago one of my friends' sons was outraged at being banned from a coffee shop and was trying to instigate a boycott. He wasn't a bad kid, but he did hang out with some other kids who had gotten into trouble for shoplifting, and he participated in tagging various vertical surfaces in the neighbourhood with his initials in spray paint.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
[QUOTE]If you have a shoplifting problem, hire more staff to guard your stuff. If you can't make a go of it because of shoplifting, then close up shop and move somewhere else.

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In my neighbourhood most of these stores are run by imigrant family and are considered microbusiness. They can just move somewhere else due to leases, cost of moving, life savings invested in the business, etc. The hours they put in are generally punishing with low pay.

The average theft in Canada is $82. For a small mom & pop operation thats can be the days profits,
Canadian retailers take bite out of crime.

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You shouldn't be allowed to discriminate on prohibited grounds to deal with it.

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My local Home Hardware neatly gets around this by requiring all backpacks to be left at the front checkout. Of course, it's mostly students who use backpacks.

There are some stores in London that require everyone to leave their shopping bags etc, at the check out. I always ignore it. If I'm ever verbally asked, I'll say no, and leave.

If they don't trust me, then I certainly don't trust that they won't lift the stuff from my bag, either.

The bag policy is pretty common as well, and I don't really think it's that unreasonable. A friend of mine puts a sandwich in her purse every time she's in superstore.

[ 16 October 2007: Message edited by: Boze ]

Canadian prisons, despite being nicer than most, are disgusting and inhumane and nobody deserves to spend a day in one. They should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

It's certainly not right that anyone should have to choose between replacing their damaged property or eating well, but "tough on crime" policies won't help them. Put delinquents in jail and you get hardened criminals.

[ 16 October 2007: Message edited by: Boze ]

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Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:
My local Home Hardware neatly gets around this by requiring all backpacks to be left at the front checkout. Of course, it's mostly students who use backpacks.

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That's at least more fair than simply targetting students.

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Originally posted by Sineed:
I would guess the suits are much less likely to be shrieking obscenities at their buddies across the foodcourt or into their cellular phones or loudly discussing the relative sexual attractiveness of various other suits they work with or throwing food or getting into fistfights (can you tell I live really close to a high school?)

And I wouldn't call race discrimination equivalent to trying to mitigate the behaviour of rowdy young people.

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I have trouble accepting the notion that kids are more likely to act up than adults. Adults can be just as obscene. One of my friends who used to manage a store in Brandon told me that the bulk of shoplifters she caught were in their 40s.

From what I've heard of shoplifting (or "shrink" as I belive it's called in-store), much of it is done by employees themselves as they are the ones who have the best opportunities to take the merchandise before it's tagged and/or to remove the dye-tag/anti-theft tag etc.

At the Queen's campus bookstore, I asked a person who was telling all the students to leave their backpacks at the front how they will ensure that no one comes along and takes my backpack on the way out. They said I had to leave it there at my own risk. I told them that unless they had proper security, perhaps with number stickers on the bag with the other number being given to the student, that they shouldn't force us to leave our valuables at the front of the store for anyone to walk out with.

They said, "It's not very likely that would happen." I told them that it wasn't very likely that I would steal anything, and that if I WERE to shoplift, that I'd find a way to do it without my backpack anyhow.

I hate stores that discriminate against students. If you can't afford to guard your stuff without discriminating based on age/colour/sex/whatever, then you can't afford to be in business.

P.S. Regarding students acting up in food courts - first of all, I've seen adults get pretty loud when having conversations in food courts too. But as long as they're laughing loudly in a SUIT, then all is well.

If they're concerned with people being rowdy in a food court, all they have to do is post rules saying that yelling and whatever other rowdy behaviour isn't allowed and if you do it, you'll be asked to leave. And then enforce it for EVERYONE. And leave everyone who is acting properly, including teenagers, alone. There are always ways to get rid of obnoxious behaviour without targeting one group or another.

[ 18 December 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]

LOL! that's a good one

Pretty much everyone I know, including myself has shoplifted or had a friend who did and it was never for hunger or any other balonely excuse.

It happens when most kids are between 12 and 15, and it just to try and get away with it.

Alot of kids have money in their pockets when they're caught taking candy, toys, shoes, cd's ect. Older teens and adults who shoplift often have pychological or emotional problems.

The minority by far steal out of need, they do exist but are rare.

I close friend's parents have run a corner store since I was born, so I have some inside info.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
P.S. Regarding students acting up in food courts - first of all, I've seen adults get pretty loud when having conversations in food courts too. But as long as they're laughing loudly in a SUIT, then all is well.

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The suits often take as many liberties about shrieking obscenities and discussing the sexual attractiveness of various women. Crude behaviour is not bound by age or class.

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Originally posted by Stargazer:
I was a rowdy, loud-mouthed teen, and so were my friends. We'd hang out in stores and piss off anyone we could with our behaviour, our loud talking and our general rudeness. Of course, not all teens are like this but I live in no fantasy land. There are a ton of places where teens congregate in large groups and intimidate the hell out of people, including food courts and stores. Another thing is, why the hell should I not be able to walk up and down isles (in a store or on the TTC) because these kids refuse to take off their back packs? Michelle, maybe you weren't this kind of teen, but I was, my son and his friends were and almost everywhere I go I am confronted with very loud, rude groups of teens. If I were a store owner I would not be too comfortable about the pack back thing either. More because it is a massive inconvenience to other shoppers. But I am under no illusion - I know there are often large groups of unruly teens and I think people have the right to enjoy a meal, a walk through a store and a ride on the TTC without being subjected to hordes of gum chewing teens hell bent on making their voices heard all through the place and generally being obnoxious.

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