Retail rant.

While Dante is no mall cop, his job sometimes involves letting unaccompanied minors ( I always wanted to say that ) know the ground-rules to ensure a safe and pleasant experience for the shoppers and no surprises when they get goods home only to learn that they were damaged in-store.

It appears that she wasn't sampling before buying as The Mail suggests. She had no pin money to make a purchase with, and therefore was just going to try it out.

But such damage is the price of doing business. Any retailer who wants to keep the goods untouched can place them behind glass or off the sales floor.

When I see a kid disturbing the peace or making use of goods for sale, I approach them with a friendly reminder that there's no running, to refrain from using profanity, or that they need to handle the goods carefully until after they've purchased them; depending on what they were doing.

I'm not going to approach them severely unless they're knowingly violating reasonable standards. The exception would be the occasional teenage boy who needs to prove himself to his peers by mocking the store's authority to set any standards in the first place.

But most kids are good even if they're bored. And a friendly reminder is all that's needed.

While I've called the police on drunks and junkies, the most I've asked of kids who knowingly violate the ground-rules is to leave the premises. The problem with security officers is that they see only the harm and not the potential young customer.

If I'd seen Hannah, the most she would have gotten was a friendly reminder. Sometimes it can even be an opportunity to chat up the product. My memory is good for LGs. If she returned I'd probably let her know about anything new in the product-line. All shoppers like to know that you care enough to remember their preferences. And kids get ignored so often that they're delighted when they find someone who remembers them positively from their previous visit.

Quite a few of the kids who I gave a gentle reminder to are among those I'm on good terms with and who seek me out to chat when they visit my establishment again.

Chatting up LGs and AGs in the line of duty is one of the perks which compensates for retail Mgmt pay.

Dante