When you think of going to the mall, you usually imagine yourself surrounded by all your friends and being able to shop wherever you want and when you want. But could this luxury soon be over? Dozens of malls now have what they call a "parental escort policy," which means that teens under the age of 18 have to be with a parent/guardian who is 21 or over in order to enter the mall. Most malls have these restrictions only on weekend evenings, but some are going so far as to keeping them in place 24-7!At the end of May, the Mid Rivers Mall (St.Louis, Missouri) put their "parental escort policy" in action and they seem to have reported a higher percentage of customers and sales. After a month, their mall traffic was up 5% on Friday/Saturday nights, and sales went up between 3% - 10%, depending on the category.
And with schools starting up again and students running to the mall, many shopping centers are following Mid Rivers Mall's example and taking up the "parental escort policy." With thousands of "teen mall rats" roaming around, general manager Joe Castaldo of Crossgates Mall called it a "a babysitting service,"and decided to enact a teen curfew. "The policy is that kids aren't allowed to use the mall as a hangout," said Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for Atlantic Terminal Mall, "We're concerned about the overall experience at the mall."
With so many teen-oriented stores in the mall, including Abercrombie & Fitch and Hot Topic, banning these young people should have a negative effect, but instead, it has proved quite the opposite. Department stores, like Macy's and Nordstrom, make the bulk of the money for a mall. "There has to be a balance," Howard Davidowitz, a retail consultant said, "The problem a developer has is if [the mall] becomes a hangout, it becomes scary for older customer. That's the department store customer, and that's the anchor of the center." Castaldo of Crossgates Mall feels that his sales have gone up because the older customers start feeling welcome again, and the teens that decide to come have their parents' wallets in tow. "Now instead of teens just spending $10 on something, parents are coming in with their credit cards," he said.
Lenore Skenazy, a columnist and author, however disagrees with these policies. "They're treating 17-year-olds like they are babies who need supervision or juvenile delinquents who should be behind bars," she said. "There's a lot of self-fulfillment in that policy. The less chance we give them to prove themselves worthy of our respect, the less likely they will."
I wholeheartedly agree with Skenazy. By introducing these curfews and policies, malls are not only rejecting a significant part of the population, but also feeding their rebellion. In my opinion, enacting these policies won't stop teens from going to mall. It'd be near impossible to prevent teens from going because it has become such a staple in our lives. Sure, malls might make more money by attracting adult costumers, but it would also lose something that's part of the mall experience: the energy and liveliness that teens provide. Imagine cruising through the mall and everyone's talking quietly and walking around properly. Doesn't really feel like a mall, does it?
8 comments:
In another blog someone mentioned that teens are taking jobs from adults that may need the money more than they do. I wonder if these "parental escort policies" will affect the employment rates of the cities these malls are in. With less teens being able to go to the mall by themselves to apply for jobs, will this open up more jobs for adults?
On another thought, I fear that rules such as these will lead teens to hang out in less safe environments and therefore push them into dangerous situations and behaviors. When I was in middle school I know that my own mother felt that I was safer hanging out in Barns and Nobles surrounding by bookworms rather than in Central Park surrounded by strung out homeless people.
From my own experience I understand why stores do not like teens coming in to malls. For instance, I had to keep a close eye on some teenagers because they usually mess clothes up, make a lot of noise, and scare away older customers. On the other hand, it's ridiculous to have a parent supervise you on something as petty as buying a shirt. It's inconvenient for the parent and a little embarrassing for the teen. Castaldo's take on parents taking out their credit cards to pay for their kids' items is not a strong enough argument. There could be for a number of reasons why the parent doesn't want to take his or her kid to the mall and on top of that pay for all the stuff the kid wants.
Sandy also brings up an excellent point about how this may force kids to hang out in even less safe environments. Parents have a sense of security knowing their child is going to the mall surrounded by other people (like moms, dads, other kids) rather than in environments that are a bit more sketchy.
Sandy is completely right to say teens will end up hanging out in less safe places. Malls are such convenient places for teenagers to hang out, and if we are prohibited to go into them, it's hard for us to find another sociable place to just chill. As Sandy said, teenagers may end up hanging in dangerous areas of town, which is a more serious consequence than some older customer scared by the presence of teens.
Instead of banning teens from malls, alternative and more effective methods can be used. It seems entirely possible to strategically position stores, depending on what age group they attract. So mall managers, how about moving Forever 21 away from Crate & Barrel? Or Sears Hardware away from EB Games? Or Abercrombie & Fitch away from Gap Baby? To me, placing stores in certain areas of the mall that curtail to the interests of their age groups is an idea worth trying. But my main point is there is probably another better solution than to simply ban teenagers.
Tiffany mentioned how with this "parental escort policy" has led to higher sales in several stores. But what about other businesses at malls - like restaurants? Food 31 in Hillsdale Mall has a fair share of teenage customers, and it's likely going to hurt such food courts in malls that implement this policy.
I personally do not see the huge problem with teenagers hanging out at malls (though this article's statistics suggest there is one). But nonetheless, this "parental escort policy" is an unnecessary and unfair approach. There are definitely other measures that could be taken.
There are pros and cons to this. I find that kids not being allowed to be free and go to the mall a discriminating ting because they are stereotyping teenagers as delinquents, which we really aren't. When you label us at this we become agitated with this label and find that adults will never respect us because they don't want to trust us. Now the pros for this is that yes stores do get more money because the parents are there with them. From experience , when i go with my mother she buys me way more clothes than when i go by myself. Businesses make way more money when parents are there with the teenagers. Also, Sandy brought up a really good point that i brought up in an earlier post. Enacting this policy may give more jobs to adults that need those jobs because teenagers won't be able to go there and look for a job unless they have parent supervision. However, teenagers can still go get jobs they just have to ask there parents to take them to look for jobs. I feel the malls should just not keep this policy because it's not the best but if malls feel it's more beneficial to them than they can do what they want.
This is rather insane, if I may ay so myself. I see the mall as a place where teens can have some sense of freedom. The fact that certain malls are enforcing these types of policies just goes to show that we should and must still be treated like little kids. On the other hand, I could see why policies like these are being enforced simply because, there are always a few annoying teens who like to cause trouble, while not under the supervision of an adult. That said, I don't think this is necessary!
Emily Zelter
I'm surprised nobody brought up the fact that this is a clear case of age discrimination. Unless the mall sold alcohol or porn or something along those lines that minors (in a dream world) shouldn't access, they have no right to ban minors from shopping. It is extremely insulting to me when people believe that they can just say one cannot go somewhere just because. Talk about stereotypes. While we're banning teens from shopping, why don't we ban people over the age of 50 from driving. Aroudn that age (and even before) is when your reflexes slow significantly. And in that case, there are actual lives at stake and not just some disgruntled shop owner.
First of all: What?
This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard/read. Not only is this age discrimination, as Jason has said, but this is also just insulting. Since when are adults safer than teenagers? Since when are adults incapable of being scary? Since when are adults incapable of stealing?
I agree with Tiffany when she says that malls will be "rejecting a significant part of the population". As teenagers, I'm sure most of us know what it is like to not be able to afford something. Thus, in some cases, we ask our parents for the money we need. But I'm sure, as teenagers, we all know what it is like for our parents to say no to that. In all honesty, how many parents would actually approve of some of the things that teenagers were buying? Speaking on a personal level, I definitely know what it's like for my mother to disapprove of something that I have bought, and have heard her tell me that she would never let me buy something like that if I was shopping with her.
All in all, this ban would severely reduce the amount of customers that malls have and thus reduce their profit. Good luck trying to get back that money.
My banninf teens from the mall, I feel like all the older Adults, say late 30's and early 40's will take over the Teen Stores, such as Forever 21 and Abercrombie and such...I know I wouldn't want to walk into a store that was usually run by a younger generation, but now older people are working- that wouldn't really persuade me to keep buying their clothes...And this article is implying that Teens are always causing trouble, we may be loud, but I've never seen pranks and such being pulled at the mall.
And yes, Sandy that was a very good point, I did not even think about when I read this. Many Teens have been forced out of a safe but, natural spot to hang out at. Now they will be going into skeevey parts of town, deciding to go down more dangerous roads.
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