A Growing Problem

Since today is Saturday we went to our favorite weekend breakfast joint instead of our weekday breakfast joint. Probably our favorite place to catch breakfast on the weekends is the Manhattan Bread & Bagel shop, on Sepulveda not that far from our house in Redondo. They’ve got the best bagels in the Los Angeles area; the old-school kind that are actually boiled before final baking, as well as absolutely excellent breads, cookies, sandwiches, and other products. They were also one of the first businesses I saw offering free wi-fi service to their customers – which is brilliant, as it adds value without actually costing anything. I’d advise anyone passing through the Beach Cities who really wants a great bagel experience to try them, and if you’re there on a Saturday, tell Lynn (the day manager) that I said “hi.”

Today, however, Lynn and her crew were facing one of the most difficult challenges to afflict any small business (and particularly those serving the public directly) in our lifetime. I refer, of course, to parents who insist on bringing their children to completely inappropriate destinations and then refusing to discipline them. The unfortunate fact is that while a bagel shop is a fine place to have some breakfast, read the paper, and watch the world go by, it doesn’t offer much that will keep a small child entertained. As I was trying to get in line to place my order, two small boys (about 7 and about 4, I’d guess) were running in circles in front of the counter, with the larger child holding something away from his brother, while their pre-teen sister yelled at them to stop. Their parents, seated less than ten feet away, were ignoring the entire spectacle.

Now this space is dedicated to business and management issues, so I’m not going to start sermonizing about the decay of our civilization; I’m not even going to point out that some very good historical analysts have pointed out that the elimination of common civility has been the beginning of the end for every major civilization so afflicted. Nor will I start ranting about what a disservice these idiots are doing their children, how the complete lack of discipline is destroying our workforce and contributing to the destruction of our industry, or even about the long-term costs to our society.

Instead, I’m going to pose the question of what, exactly, you are supposed to do when you are the shift manager and your customers (and their children) are behaving in this manner. Asking the children to stop this behavior may not work, and may bring the wrath of the parents down on you; it will definitely leave you looking foolish if the kids ignore you or their parents tell them they can. You can appeal directly to the parents, but some folks will be offended that you would even suggest that they prevent their precious snowflakes from expressing their exuberance, and some may cause trouble in addition to leaving and never bringing you any more business. It’s probably illegal to have someone “accidentally” trip over one of the kids and drop a large pot of boiling water on the offending parents, but if I’m on the jury I’d never vote to convict, and if I’m on the jury at the civil trial I’d refuse to hold the business liable for anything – the idiot parents knew that letting the kids run amok in a public place was dangerous.

Ultimately, this question goes back to one of our early posts where I suggested that people who want you to destroy your business for their amusement aren’t really your customers. You can revisit that post here if you want to, but in general, what I’m suggesting in this case is that people who are really your customers will understand that your other customers and employees need to be able to walk without tripping over kids running amok, and will at least attempt to cooperate with you when you ask them to maintain some order over their brood. And the people who insist on annoying the rest of your customers, creating a huge mess (thus costing you money in both lost sales and increased maintenance) and driving your insurance premiums through the roof, all purely for their own amusement, aren’t really customers…