Parents, Take Note!
There is a seemingly new trend in parenting young teens these days….leave them at shopping centers and let them roam free range while wreaking havoc and risking the safety of store patrons.
As a merchant at Park Road Shopping Center, I am amazed at the behavior of these young teens. On Saturday, there were perhaps ten boys creating quite the scene on our sidewalks. One boy riding IN a grocery cart holding up a large toy and swinging it about while being pushed as fast as the other boy could run down the sidewalk! All the while several other boys chasing after the cart as if following on parade, spewing popcorn all over the sidewalk, and shouting so loud that the customers in my store were alarmed and nervous!
There are so many things wrong with this occurrence. First of all, it was dangerous for both shoppers AND the young teens. Second, there was ZERO respect for the property of the shopping center and that of its tenants. Blackhawk Hardware popcorn was strewn everywhere as well as the bags it was carried in, Harris Teeter shopping carts being abused by the weight and speed at which they were being run throughout the center. Again, not one bit of respect for the merchants and patrons of Park Road Shopping Center.
Parents. WAKE UP. Teach your children respect for others and themselves. Spend time with them instead of letting the shopping center be your babysitter. It isn’t fair to your kid, to the shoppers, or the store owners. And lest you still not realize what a problem and a nuisance this has become, let me take your imagination a bit further…on a recent day off from school, two young teens walked into my furniture store, promptly took a seat at a dining table on display at the front and proceeded to set up their lunch purchased an area restaurant. And when asked to find another place to eat outside of the store, they looked at me in disbelief, as if this “dining area” was meant just for them. And on another recent school holiday, we found a young man and his presumed girlfriend sitting on a brand new sofa in the back beginning to make out. I kid you not. This is our reality here at Park Road Shopping Center. I hope you are as disturbed by this as we continue to be on a regular basis.
So the message is this…please, PLEASE should you drop your children off here to spend an afternoon, remind them that they are not the only people here and that the merchants are trying to conduct business for their actual customers without incident whether it be inside or on the sidewalk.