Younger people treated differently, AIBU?

[YourBrightFawn]

Me and DD (19) regularly go to the theatre and pay for the lounge package for before the show and during the interval. If you have food and drink in the lounge then you pay for it during the interval and not at the time of ordering, you always pay for it in the interval. DD went with her friend (20 years old) last night and was told that they couldn’t pay during the interval like everyone else would and that they had to pay at the time of ordering “in case” they “didn’t pay as younger people are less likely to pay” (DD said the staff member used those words) but everyone else in the lounge was able to pay during the interval as normal. DD doesn’t see the problem and says she was happy to just pay at the time of ordering when they asked and not during the interval like usual but I think it’s age discrimination and absolutely outrageous to judge people based on age like that. AIBU? DH doesn’t see the problem and DD doesn’t either but I think it’s outrageous and discrimination.

Yes, so you've said a few times already, including twice in your OP.

It wouldn't bother me tbh.

I do think it’s age discrimination and outrageous

We know! You keep telling us!

It is age discrimination and the funny thing js when we’ve seen the news stories of adults buying stuff from restaurants then running away before paying it’s mainly been people over 25.

YANBU. I hate this type of age discrimination. You wouldn’t do this for any other group (if one ethnic group was found to be more likely to run off without paying than another for example). I also hate the ‘only two schoolchildren’ rules as well. I think you should judge people on their behaviour not on their age.

Unfortunately life isn't always fair and sometimes you just have to accept certain things whether you agree with them or not. They're 2 very good lifeskills to learn

This.

I would say ‘outrageous’ is a bit dramatic.

The PP who mentioned young people paying more for car insurance has a point tbh.

Also the venue are silly not to ask everyone to pay upfront.

Realistically though the staff don’t have time to stand there and watch young people to judge their behaviour for a while before they decide whether to ask them to pay now or later.

If everyone had to pay upfront then that would be a different situation and that would be ok but that’s not the situation here.

It would be different if everyone was asked to pay upfront but that’s not the situation here.

I know. I was just saying the venue don’t sound like they make the best decisions anyway.

But yeah…think about car insurance bit. There is no denying that there are situations where young people are more at risk of being less responsible.

Obviously it’s discrimination. But so what? It would be idiotic not to discriminate sometimes. Here the venue have identified a problem and are discriminating in order to address it. Nobody’s being harmed. Grow up and accept it imo.

What policies specifically discriminate against older people, though? Losing health and attractiveness is just nature, not discrimination.

I agree with you, OP. I bet that if someone said that about people of pension age, there would be uproar. People on this site are always whining about ageism but they mean about older people, not younger.

I completely agree. I thought this only yesterday, when I went to the corner shop with my 13yo DS after school. I saw a girl of a similar age come in and she was immediately scanning the shop. I wondered why, then I realised that she was looking to see if she was allowed in, on account of how many other kids were already in the shop; even though she'd actually gone in with her mum.

As somebody who would never have countenanced thinking of stealing from a shop when I was a child, and as a parent of a child who is the same, it's horrible to be tarred with the same brush. Meanwhile, a group of adults could go in, with one/more/all of them happening to be thieves, and they're free to go on right ahead.

I thought the same as you regarding if it were based on ethnicity instead. The racism involved in police routinely pulling over young black people who have nice cars, with the assumption that they've likely stolen them. If called to account, they will splutter that young black people DO steal cars. Yes, indeed some of them do; just like some white people and some older people of all races. But the vast majority don't.

It's horrible and lazy to blatantly discriminate against people in this way. If they're experiencing non-payers, they would be better to just change their official policy so that everybody pays when they have the drinks. What great benefit does it actually bring to charge them later? It just sounds like an extra unnecessary admin task for the staff and for the customers to have to remember; isn't it much simpler to order the drinks, pay for the drinks, drink the drinks, all dealt with?

I don't think it's the same as insurance, as the whole idea of insurance is spreading risk across a much wider group. It's one thing to say that you're young, and younger people on the whole tend to have more accidents, so you have to pay more than older people do. That's largely based on driving experience - it's a bit difficult to have been driving for 30 years when you're only 19 - and, crucially, most accidents aren't caused as a result of somebody's deliberate choice to commit a crime. Obviously claims for theft are, but that's down to an as-yet-unknown stranger's criminal intent and not the customer.

Yes; and it's not connected anyway - unless they're making all the glamorous grannies pay upfront whilst happily extending credit to other older people who very much look their age and aren't at all bothered about it!

If they've had problems with people not paying then everyone should be made to pay upfront and not just a couple of young people. Older people are just as likely to do a runner.
It's a daft system anyway. If people order food and I presume the people in the lounge prepare it during the first half so everyone is served quickly during the interval, it's risky that they then change their mind and don't want the food and then it goes to waste. If they've paid then the theatre doesn't lose out if they change their mind.

I saw a girl of a similar age come in and she was immediately scanning the shop. I wondered why, then I realised that she was looking to see if she was allowed in, on account of how many other kids were already in the shop; even though she'd actually gone in with her mum.

But this in itself is an assumption... she might have been scanning to see if her friends were in there, to check that a certain staff member wasn't there, to see where people were so she could know where best to stand and steal from

The rule is usually for groups of school kids as well and doesn't usually apply to kids with their parents

This.

Wow. 'Where she could stand and steal from'?

Also, my husband worked in a supermarket in his teens. He said that cute little old ladies were often thieves!

And this is the problem, people always assume the worst of young people and tar them all with the same brush.

A previous poster mentioned insurance, that is a completely different situation.

I hated being that age, so many older people treating me like an idiot. To be fair now I'm older I realise a lot of people that age are idiots - but not all of them!

You get idiots in all age brackets. It's true that young people's brains haven't fully developed yet, and they can be foolish/reckless owing to that and also to lack of life experience, but a lot of them have their heads screwed on the right way. And I know an awful lot of very foolish middle aged and elderly people, as well.

Well you were making assumptions

I was pointing out other assumptions