daughter was asked to leave homebase because she's under 18?

[whatisgoingonitw]

My daughter and her friend (both 15) went shopping yesterday and nipped into Homebase as my daughter wanted a plant and her friend wanted a heated blanket. They were approached by a member of staff who said “what age are you both you don’t look old enough to be in here” they replied 15. The member of staff asked them to leave as you need to be 18 to shop. My daughter is very straight forward and says how it is, she told the member of staff no as that is not true. The girls continued to walk around the store and they were followed by this lady who works there. They got to the till and paid with no issues the employee at the till didn’t mention age. My daughter told me this when she got home and explained the employee was rude and followed them around the store as well as giving them “dirty looks” I rung the store today to speak to a manager as that customer service is not okay. He told me you do infact need to be with an adult 18+ to shop. Is this serious? I can’t find anything on the website.

I moved out into a bedsit at 16, I loved buying little bits for it from homebase or b&q, I'd have been upset at this but left the shop.
Well done for raising your lass to speak up, use her voice and not be a submissive person. We can't moan we're ingrained with "be a good girl/be kind" then when we don't raise our daughters to be placid complain they're entitled/hard work.

I'd rather my DD was able to question injustice instead of simply accepting it.

Kids buying plants and heated blankets really aren't the same as kids buying knives, let's be honest.

She's a 16yr old girl. Where are you drawing your assumptions from? They were buying a house plant. One imagines you've got all kinds of form for being rude. But get a sodding grip, honestly.

Different youth, different parents. I'd rather my teens were looking for house plants in Homebase than active on far alt rallies, personally. And I'd rather my kids became independent. Some of the terrible comments on this thread about the hatred and prohibition of 16yr olds is really worrying. And gravely thick.

@Isitautumnyet23 seriously? Do you reckon 4yr olds are after your kitchen knives? Is the post person triggering you? I'm sorry you had a terrible time at 16. So did I. But it is possible for young people to be nice.

It makes you wonder. I used to work in a farmers supply store and the after school workers were trusted to go over to the inward goods building where forklifts were operating. It was never a problem.

Children in care AKA 'looked after' are often in a bedsit or a flat at 16. I've taught a few.

What a strange response. My daughter would speak up to. Not sure why that's a problem tbh?

? What an unnecessary comment

That's bs and a cop out. My son is autistic and has beautiful manners. What I can tell you is that you need to grow up.

I left home at 16 albeit 44 years ago. In those days I was able to secure a safe place to live. I know rules are different now.

I would like to hear Homebase's version of what happened

Her daughter sounds sensible. and was standing up to a jobsworth.

Plus as previous posters have said - the shop was happy enough to take her money.

Utterly stupid.

NEWS HEADLINE - 15 year old buys plant in shop!!

There are FLT’s in my local Homebase both in and outside the store so in garden area too.

jobsworth charming. Someone has to do minimum wage jobs you know, I'm sure you appreciated it during lockdown. What a disgusting attitude

As stated before I haven’t seen knives for sale in both my local Sainsbury’s. The third one I can’t recall (pribsbly table cutlery knives) I also can’t recall seeing knives in either big Tescos I go in. Probably the reason for them not being on sale or display is I live in an area of SE London/Kent borders where there’s a high degree of knife crime or there was, so they don’t want teens buying them. I’ve wanted a new sharp knife with the black handle before and not found it there. Haven’t been in a John Lewis in ages and the last one was in Oxford Street last spring.
We don’t have Home Bargains, B&M or Dunelm where I live or not that I know.

Also the Homebase/B&Q stores I know, one B&Q is on a small high street but with an estate behind it and small businesses like garages next to it, the others are on small shopping mall type areas with again estates and industrial estates backing onto them.

It totally depends on the area, teens etc. I’ve seen teens run riot in shops and teens who don’t. Teens who walk nicely home from school in a residential area and some who don’t. Teens who walk home via the chicken shop and local high street who are polite etc..

But there’s no getting away from it that ‘some’ teens and even children are badly behaved and try to shoplift.

Good for your daughter. Teens need to be able to shop independently.

I’ve just thought and have realised that many teens are assigned debit and other cards these days as well as Apple Pay etc. I think the difference for me as a teenager is I was dragged by my parents in 1980’s to B&Q, Homebase and the local diy store every weekend (or it seemed like it!) partly to teach me about what tools I needed to do jobs but also to help choose various items for the house and my bedroom.

I was allowed to buy a houseplant but this would’ve been from a supermarket or the local garden centre (which also sold garden tools).

We did have attacks by teens with knives then but it seemed less common, though my DB and his friends carried pen and flick knives on themselves for protection.

I suppose back then, teens did what they were told and rarely questioned authority. So in one way OP’s DD was right to do this. But on the other hand none of us were there so have no idea of the conversation.

I agree with @Ritasueandbobtoo9 that teens do need to be able to shop independently but I also think shops should have examples of why they’re not allowed in, or why they’re (and other people) aren’t allowed to buy certain items like the liquid used to harm the woman and children in Clapham recently and parents should teach their teens the difference between being rude and entitled and standing up for yourself and questioning authority.

I’ll give a recent example of kids running wild, either last Easter or last summer in our local high street when school ended. Presumably school leavers who’d taken exams were celebrating so running and throwing water and trying to spray things. The local Poundland shop had its door smashed and the teens ran away. I doubt they found the parents to make them pay for the damage. Now that Poundland has only one door open rather than two.

Some adults are badly behaved too. And OP says the staff member wasn't nice or polite to her dd. Tbh, if a teenager is approached when they are legitimately shopping and not causing any trouble and told to leave by some busybody jobsworth, I think they are doing very well to not respond in a chippy manner. Plenty of adults (including me probably) would have told the shop worker to piss off if we were innocently going about our business and then told to leave a shop because we fit a certain demographic.

She's gone for the easy target - the nice kid buying a plant. Bet she doesn't go near actual thieves or groups of people causing trouble.

How do you know unless you work there who the shop worker has interaction with on a day to day basis? How do you know how many shoplifters or other clients who complain, cause a fuss etc or who are nice and simply shopping she has to deal with every day, day in, day out.

I know a few friends who work on shop floors or in customer service serving food and drink and though most enjoy their jobs and their customers not every transaction is straightforward and polite whether it be with a teenager or an adult.

jobsworthcharming. Someone has to do minimum wage jobs you know, I'm sure you appreciated it during lockdown. What a disgusting attitude

Anyone can be a jobsworth. They don't have to be on minimum wages. I made no reference to that anyway!!

I worked throughout lockdown in a public facing role ie a hospital. My son worked in a supermarket, and my husband as a Covid tester in a testing centre. So yep - we know about minimum wage jobs too

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain I'm judging from the way she approached a teenager, who was just minding her own business. There's no need to cause hassle for that kind of kid and try to throw them out - she's a legitimate customer.

I've also worked in retail and done waitressing. If the shop worker is regularly dealing with difficult customers, she'd do better to leave the ones who aren't alone.

How many 16 year olds have their own flat? Even ‘back in the day’ this would be unusual.

But the thing is and which I’ve stated before here unless we were there or unless the shop has cctv footage how do we know what happened and who was telling the truth. The fact is we don’t know as we were not there!

A large Decathlon near me used to have this rule. I think because they had areas to try out various sports and they wanted to prevent teens hanging out there. Security guards on the entrance who often (but not always) turned away unaccompanied under 16s. Quite annoying as it wasn’t well publicised and Decathlon sells lots of stuff teens want to buy!