“Excuse me, miss, may I see your ID?”
Syracuse University sophomore Nora Giannini, 19, fumbled through her purse for her ID while the man in the red coat waited. She handed him her driver’s license and watched him look it over. The man smiled as he gave it back, thanked her, and walked away.
It was a Saturday night, but Giannini wasn’t at a bar—she was shopping at the Carousel Center in Syracuse. The man in the red coat wasn’t a bouncer—he was a Guest Relations staff member. Part of his job is to enforce the Carousel Center’s Parental Escort Policy.
“Being carded made me feel like I was in junior high and a suspect simultaneously,” Giannini said. “I thought it was pretty pointless.”
Carousel management implemented the Parental Escort Policy in June 2003. According to the policy, people under the age of 18 are not allowed in the mall after 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays without a parent or guardian who is at least 21 years old. Parents can supervise up to five minors at a time. The policy does not apply to the mall movie theater or to stores with outdoor entrances.
Carousel Center General Manager Rob Schoeneck said the Parental Escort Policy was “designed to improve the environment of the mall.” Prior to the policy, he had received customer complaints about groups of teenagers running around the mall, riding up and down the escalators, making noise, and using foul language—particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. “It was making it more and more difficult for couples, for families, to be here,” Schoeneck said. “You know, you open the elevator doors and instead of politely waiting for people to come off, a group of five or six kids just barges into the elevator.”
Now, more than six years later, Schoeneck says the Parental Escort Policy works. “It’s the right guest experience,” Schoeneck said with a shrug. “I can’t guarantee that tonight someone’s not going to act up in the mall. But the issues we used to have on Friday and Saturday nights, we just don’t have them and haven’t seen them.”
Carousel Center Security Director Tim Erwin said he could not comment on the Parental Escort Policy because only Schoeneck is allowed to speak to the press. Schoeneck would not allow NCC News to speak to security guards, Guest Relations staff, or mall shoppers.
Ray Wimer, an assistant professor of retail management in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, says it’s common for mall managers to keep reporters from speaking to employees because the employees do not set mall policies—they enforce them. But Wimer says Schoeneck’s refusal to allow reporters to interview shoppers suggests a lack of confidence in his own policy. “It really seems like they’re trying to hide something. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t let you talk to shoppers if they think their policy is so great.”
Schoeneck did allow NCC News to talk to mall tenants. Of the 24 NCC News contacted, five would speak about the Parental Escort Policy. Wimer says some store managers cannot comment because of corporate restrictions, but others may be hesitant because of pressure from mall management. “Honestly, they very well could be scared of repercussions,” he said. “It’s a possibility because of the perceived power of management and Pyramid Corporation.”
The tenants who agreed to comment spoke positively about the Parental Escort Policy. Abercrombie and Fitch assistant manager Kellie Colles says the policy has helped business because it reduces shoplifting. Shoplifting happens more on weekends, and if teenagers are required to be with parents, they are less likely to steal from stores, Colles said.
Brenda Gorzka, District Manager of Subway at the Carousel Center, says she only has good things to say about the Parental Escort Policy. “It affects our business in a positive way; we’re having a great year. It makes the mall safer.”
Schoeneck said the Parental Escort Policy has not hurt mall business because it only affects eight to ten hours per week. For some tenants, business has improved, he said. Schoeneck said he could not give specific statistics.
Wimer says those eight to ten hours can make all the difference because they are during the busiest shopping days. But requiring minors to be with adults weekend nights would not necessarily have a negative effect on business because teenagers tend to spend less money, he said.
Holly Nosiglia, a junior at Cicero-North Syracuse High School and a contributing writer for The Post-Standard, said she does spend money at the mall. Nosiglia said she doesn’t like the policy, and neither do her parents. “My parents just think it’s stupid and that [mall security] should be paid to root out people who are actually causing trouble rather than people who would cause trouble…I don’t think that my age group is really that terrible and I find it really condescending.”
Nosiglia said the Parental Escort Policy is also unpopular with her friends. “Everyone views it negatively for the most part. You have to get your shopping done somewhere. You don’t want to go shopping with your mom.”
But Nosiglia has gone shopping without her mother on weekend nights. She says that is because some security personnel are stricter than others. “I see some security guards that get way more into it than the other ones. A lot of the security guards just walk by and they’re like whatever…they’ll give you eye contact, they won’t pursue it, they’ll just go about their business. Then I see some security guards who patrol a specific area and anytime someone walks by they stop them and they are overzealous about the whole thing.”
SU junior, D.K. Kim, 20, says he has also noticed that the policy is not enforced consistently. “I think those people are pretty selective in who they choose to question. They’re more likely to question people who look suspicious rather than actually looking at their age.”
Kim says he experienced this firsthand one Friday night his freshman year at the Carousel Center. He said he was sitting in the food court with friends when a Guest Relations staff member passed by his group and went on to question a group of black teenagers about their ages. Kim said this surprised him because he and his friends are Asian and “Asian people look young.”
“I think it’s not what age you are, but it’s more how you dress and how you portray yourself – and society,” Kim said. “I think they would more likely question an African American just because of the society around here.”
Schoeneck says the Guest Relations staff members do not enforce the policy based on anything other than age. “We really preach that we want to be consistent. We don’t want people to come up to us and say, ‘You’re picking on these people, and you’re not picking on [others].’ It doesn’t matter to us.”
Even if policy enforcement is consistent, mall management is sacrificing fairness for simplicity, Nosiglia said. She suggests a policy based on behavior, not age. “Security should let kids off with a warning and alert the other security guards,” Nosiglia said. “You know, the kid in the black shirt is causing issues. If he does it again, kick him out.”
The Parental Escort Policy is not changing anytime soon, Schoeneck said. “I’m not gonna change it if it’s working well. I think we hit it right where we should the first time…but just because it’s working good doesn’t mean we still can’t improve the program.”
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