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Shopping Centers Today -> October 2001
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RESCINDING AN ESCORT POLICY
Most regional malls that have introduced parental escort policies over the years have kept them. Patrick Henry Mall is a rare exception. The 643,000-square-foot center in Newport News, Va., instituted a curfew in 1995 after its manager walked his own center anonymously one weekend in response to customer complaints.
“I’d get calls on Monday mornings from customers saying ‘I’m never coming back,’” recalled manager Roger Brown.
What he saw — crowds of kids essentially taking over the center — scared him into immediate action.
He imposed, without corporate permission, a ban on teens from 6 p.m. to closing on Friday and Saturday nights. “I put my career on the line.”
Luckily for him, his superiors were supportive, even though officials knew the center and the company would receive negative press, said Christine Menna, CMD, vice president of corporate communications for Crown American Realty Trust, the mall’s Johnstown, Pa.-based owner/manager.
Shortly after imposing the ban, however, Brown met with various church and school groups, and the teens themselves tried to come up with an alternative to the ban.
“They wanted to know how to come back,” he said.
The kids created a system of identification cards, and volunteered to let security know when a potential troublemaker is in the mall. The program worked so well that the curfew was lifted after just eight weeks and has not been instituted since.
— D.H.
 | Current Issue November 2008 |