Picture this: you're standing in the children's section of a bookstore. You've got money. You've got books to buy. And then an employee tells you that you have to leave. The reason? The other customers are freaked out that you're a man.
It's a story a grandfather from Arizona is screaming from the rooftops this week. Omar Amin says he went to Barnes and Noble to buy books for his grandkids, and he got kicked out because he was a man. And a store spokesperson is defending the action.
So who's right?
In this case, based on information as presented, I side with Amin. We have no sign this grandfather was doing anything besides shopping for books for his grandkids or that his "crime" was anything other than being a male. If everything he says is true, it's a clear case of discrimination. I am sick and tired of the tired old "man around kids must be a pedophile" reaction. It's unfair to the millions of males in this world who wouldn't dream of such base and disgusting actions. And when you consider there are female pedophiles out there, it's far too simplistic.
And yet, if customers are approaching a store manager complaining about a person in the store who is giving them the willies, what's a store manager to do? It's a basic rule of business that the customer is always right ... right?
Well, nope, not at all. A manager could have 10 customers pitch a fit, claiming a breastfeeding mom is freaking them out because OMG, boobies. But the law (not to mention common sense) protects Mom and child from getting the boot. Or there could be a small but vocal contingent of skinheads in the store on any given day, moaning to management that they shouldn't allow a (insert slur for ethnic minority here) into their establishment. Again, the law and common sense trump "customer is always right."
The customer is always right is a nice motto, but it doesn't hold up when ethics are on the line. People, real people, have to come before old mantras.
What do you think of this store's actions?
Image via loranger/Flickr
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Comments 39
WOW. Granted we probably don't have all the facts. But I'm thinking the store is totally in the wrong here.
I will say that it is NOT par for the course for all B&N stores though. The one by my house has never looked crosswise at my SO shopping in the kids' section alone.
Was it Antigone's on 4th Ave? Because the owner is a bit on the feminazi side.
This is such BS! My step-dad is an old biker in his late 50's & looks like someone you would cross to the other side of the street to avoid. He is also THE WORLD'S BEST GRANDPA!! He's my 2yr old daughter's favorite person & they are BFFs. He even watches her for me twice a week. That being said, if he was denied the right to buy her a book, or anything else... B&N would have a much bigger problem on their hands, in the form of...ME! lol
Barnes & Noble shouldn't "judge a book by it's cover"... lol, sorry I had to...
And as for the discussion on well if the customers are always right........, even if they are(which they're not), the man's a customer too. You don't just ask an innocent customer to leave because of the ridiculous request of another customer. What if any of us were in a store and a worker told us to leave because another customer "didn't feel comfortable" with us there? Absurd. What happened to innocent until proven quilty? This man was just declared qulity, and there was no crime even!! What is this world coming to?
Honestly, he looks like a very nice older man. Wouldn't the appropriate response from a store employee to ask him, "Can I help you find something?" A question like that would diffuse, rather than escalate a situation.