Bostonist doesn't recall the local shopping mall as an unsafe location growing up in our teen years, but in Holyoke no one under the age of 18 will be allowed into the local mall (after 4 p.m. on weekends) without parental accompaniment or proper identification. The reported problem is that large "gangs" of children shoplift and their presence is scaring away older clientele from the mall. The mall claims that since the policy was implemented, stores are getting more business and adults are enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. But what about the children? A local Western Mass paper, The Republican, quoted fifteen-year-old Brian D. Sullivan of Hampden, calling the situation "a total bummer."
"'That is so not cool,' said Sullivan, who was eating lunch yesterday in the food court with friends King and Michael A. Deroche. The trio will be sophomores at Minnechaug Regional High School, and each spends about $20, mostly on food, during their weekly mall visits."
Bostonist did a little investigating and found that neither the Prudential Center nor the Cambridge Side Galleria have any restrictions with teenagers in the mall and yet experience very few problems from gangs of shoplifters. The Meadow Glen Mall in Medford, which is more comparable to the Holyoke Mall versus the security-laden Prudential, also doesn't have any age requirement, even during the summer when kids are out of school.
If we can keep out kids because they are bad for business, Bostonist
has a few other suggestions for people we'd like to see not allowed into stores. (i.e., that overly-loud cell phone user, old ladies with too many coupons, our seventh grade math teacher, etc.)
Checking IDs is a form of age discrimination, so the National Youth Rights Association has looked into bringing charges against the mall. However, it's unlikely that anything will happen since this isn't the first mall to institute age restrictive policies. The largest mall in the U.S., The Mall of America, introduced a similar policy in 1996.
Contributed by Matthew Nelson/image courtesy of Wikimedia.
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