Were people aware that Sainsburys Forest Hill have or will ban all schoolkids from their store? The ban originally started with Forest Hill Boys, but was extended to all boys, regardless of school, because of the difficulty in identifying uniforms under coats. I'm told by Sainsburys that they will shortly also be extending the ban to all girls as well.

What do people think? Is it just me that thinks it's unfair to tar all children with the same brush? Should Sainsbury's not get their security in order, rather than just blanket banning everybody?

I'm with you on this shzl400.

Happy to speak to Sainsburys FH on this as I don't agree that any kid should be blamed or banned from anywhere just because of what they are wearing.

Happy to work on this with you so give me a shout if you are interested.

Pauline

OK, how would you suggest they stop the kids stealing. When I moved here in 2001 no kids were allowed in store. Sad to see that returning.

If you run a business and people steal from you then you should be entitled to take appropriate security measures.

With a group, any group, milling around an aisle it is not possible for the cameras to spot who has put stuff in their pocket. I have witnessed it, not in Sainsbury's but locally.

Tolerating minor crime only encourages the individual to move on to more serious crime.

I don't suppose the children will be banned when accompanied by an adult so the ban seems proportionate to me.

Have they been banned specifically for stealing? The OP doesn't say.

I can remember being about 12 years old (a long time ago!) and going to a supermarket after school to get things for my mother - I had a list in her handwriting and some cash to get things needed for that night's dinner. My school and the supermarket were a bus ride away from home and my mother worked and didn't drive so it made sense for me to do the shopping. My two friends decided to keep me company as I did the shopping. We were promptly evicted by a security guard because we looked suspicious. Even when I showed him the list I had, he wouldn't let me back in on my own. I felt humiliated and frightened that someone would judge me like that, someone with the power to take arbitrary decisions against me. I wept all the way home. My mother didn't believe such a thing would happen and punished me for 'forgetting' to get the groceries on the way home. It was too late for us to go out again and get the food. I have never, ever forgotten how that experience made me feel.

My teenage son tells me people will not sit beside him on the bus, and cross the street to avoid him and his friends. They are lovely, gentle boys who would gladly do anything for anyone. It breaks my heart to see them judged in this way.

None of this will even have occurred to the managers at Sainsburys - why would it? But demonising our young people seems like a great way to make them resent authority, not respect it.

Rant over.

RHS, I am sorry to hear about your experiences. However, what would you suggest? Shoplifting is a massive problem, it cost the UK £511 million in 2014. Yes I know it is only a few kids but they ruin it for the rest. The security guards in Sainsburys have a torrid time with some of the kids as the kids just do not give a s**t. I have personally witnessed the reaction of a 12 or 13 year old kid who has been caught, I was shocked at the violence and language that they displayed. Yes your own kids may well be very well behaved, but there are a good few who are not.

So, instead of condemning Sainsburys please give us your idea of a solution!

I'm not condemning Sainsburys - as I said there's no reason why they would have considered how a policy like this makes 'good' kids feel.

The schools could maybe do more. My kids go to school in Streatham. They are forbidden by the school to go into any of the shops at Crown Point, which is a flashpoint for trouble as there are so many secondary schools in that area. The reasoning is kids from our school could get implicated in trouble just by being in the vicinity. So they aren't allowed there. How is this achieved? Teachers patrol the local area and trouble spots until 5pm.

This makes me feel sad. My family know many of the staff in sainsbury's and many have known my son (14) since he was born.. so now, because of a minority of kids, who choose to misbehave, i can no longer send my son down the rd, to pick up ingredients he needs for food tech lessons, or odd bits we need. I always thought it was ideal, as he never had to worry about asking for assistence, as he is known by name, and knows the staff.

I was in Sainsbury's this morning. Two lads were told they couldn't be served because they were from FH Boys. They didn't seem to be aware of the ban. I put their things in with my shopping and bought them. It seems terribly unfair to have a blanket ban. There were very few people in the shop and these were the only youngsters.

I'm not sure which Sainsbury's this refers to, but I was in the Pet Shop part the Bell Green retail park with Sainsburys, PC world etc.

A group of around 8 schoolboys \ young men walked in and one was asked to leave as the rule was 'no schoolboys' without a parent present. It was a strange one, the boys were big but the kid who got asked to leave was heading to a section of the shop where I can't believe anything would be stolen (aquariums \ lizards section). I remember when I was young I would like to look at the animals in the pet shop.

Shoplifting is of course a huge problem for shops, and of course you cannot tell a shoplifter from looking at them. I personally think a limit of x amount of kids at a time as you often see in newsagents might be best, a compromise of sorts.

As with many things, there is no easy answer, but I suspect the answer here lies through the schools and parenting as mentioned above.

It was the Forest Hill shop. And what a shame about the young lads not being able to look at the animals at Pets at Home. We can't presume all young people are trouble because the reality is that the vast majority aren't.

It's tough, when you don't own a shop it's easy to say let everyone in, but if you are the victim of continual crime what is the answer for you a business owner?

I didn't hear the main conversation with staff in this instance, though it appeared as if they were being escorted out of the car park by the police at one stage who then went into the store. They certainly were not leaving the store at top speed, but then again I'm pretty I would not if asked for that reason as well when I was younger, or even now.

When I was at school I had respect for my elders. If asked to leave a store I would have done, I may not have liked it but would have shut my mouth and done it. I would have also been very peed off if I found out that my fellow pupils were the reason why I was asked to leave the store as they were stealing.

The lads behaved perfectly fine. They were confused to start with as they hadn't heard of the ban but left without question when told to. Has anyone see any signs about this at the entrances?

My guess is that it's spoiled for everyone by a few bad eggs.


My second guess is the school is powerless to do anything. Hence why Sainsburys has done this for so long.


As far as I'm concerned, Sainsburys can do what they like. Extending the ban to girls is probably more of a discrimination policy thing, where they can't be seen to only be banning boys.

This post was last modified: 09-12-2015 05:07 PM by Decker.

I wonder if the kids from St Dunstans are banned, surely those snobby posh kids aren't expected to steal stuff.

This is blatant discrimination and shouldn't even be legal. Replace "teenagers" with any other group of people, and there would be complete uproar. It's exactly the same - judging a whole section of society because of the actions of a minority is an extremely dangerous road to go down.

BCM, what would you suggest Sainsbury do?

This post was last modified: 10-12-2015 09:08 AM by Londondrz.

This is terrible.
How are the old folk expected to steal their xmas dinner, without the distraction of the school kids?

Stop stocking stuff kids steal.