General question about bans -

[timtommy]

It seems like Chris has accumulated several bans from stores and restaurant.

Forgive my naivete, but I haven't banned from anything since I was 15 and my friend and I got busted screwing with for sale stickers.

If any one has worked in retail I am curious:

How common is it to ban someone from a store?

Does it tend to be an official procedure that the manager will have been trained for and have forms to fill out for, or is it just a thing to say to get rid of a situation?

Will other employees be aware of it, so they can enforce it if the manager who issued it is not on duty?

I imagine if a ban is ignored by the bannee, he/she can be charged with trespassing. Do banns tend to be respected? If they are not, are the police brought in?

For the veteran Christorians: Has Chris always respected his banns?

 

[Null]

Throughout my entire life I have never seen or heard of anyone getting banned from any store. I think my mom mentioned that her boyfriend (a psychotic ex military drunk that burned down her house) was banned from a bar one time for getting in a fight with the owner over a pool table or something, but even then I don't know if that was official or just a general feeling of not being welcomed anymore.

I had about half a year's experience in fast food. In that time there were many people I met whom were either assholes or mentally disabled or homeless. The general approach taken by staff (both managers and employees) is to give them what they want so they go away. I actually remember one of the few moments where my boss was genuinely funny and said "if someone's being an ass at the counter we don't ask if it's for here or to go, put it in a bag and get them the hell out." Banning someone from a store is a time consuming procedure and if they're being obstructionists anyways they'll probably do what Chris does and refuse to leave. At that point you have to call in the Police and formalize the trespassing complaint. That's all a huge pain in the ass and a dude making $10/hr to run a burger joint or a good will doesn't want to deal with it.

Chris has to be a true pain in the ass. He has to be top of the line intolerable to get this sort of attention. It has to balance out this equation: is telling this guy to leave and maybe having to call the police and give a statement and force him off the property less time consuming and troublesome than just dealing with him?

 

[Suloxide]

When I used to work at a 7-11 and we just posted pictures of banned customers on the wall in the backroom, if we saw them we told them to leave and if they refused we'd call the cops. We only banned people from the store when they'd steal or caused real trouble, if Chris were to sit outside with an attraction sign we wouldn't care.

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

It shows what kind of ruckus Chris must have caused for a store or restaurant to ban him if you have to steal or get in fights to get banned. Although if you're running a TCG tournament for little kids, the manajerk is likely to be less forgiving.

 

[Pikonic]

My buddy owns a place similar to the Game Place, he only banned a group of teenagers once. They were assholes to the rest of us. The final straw was when they tried stealing some Magic cards.

 

[Mourning Dove]

I work at a movie theater. For the many years I've been there, no individual has been permanently banned as far as I know. Managers and security just kick out people being assholes and/or disturbing other patrons during the movie.

 

[drmccoy]

Yeah, bans really only ever happen when you're repeatedly disruptive or will cut down on business because of hygiene, general craziness and just doing something that potential customers would considered repulsive and not return because of.

Chris's list of bans is really impressive because of the rarity which they happen for non-theft related issues.

 

[Golly]

I'm not sure Chris does anything too wayward (outside of the Walmart vandalism), but what he does do, which is probably loitering, being his unsettling antisocial self, and flaunting his idiosyncrasies on a regular basis, has a cumulative effect. After awhile, the management is probably looking for any excuse to keep him away from their customers/staff.

 

[Some JERK]

i've seen people get thrown out of places plenty, and the unspoken understanding is that it's more like "come back when you're sober/willing to act like an adult" or whatever. after some time passes the banned will show back up to test the waters and nobody really cares. I've only witnessed a couple of perma-bans before, but those were for shit like starting fistfights or stealing.

in other words, to get perma-banned without breaking the law you have to be extremely irritating or creepy.

 

[3Yikes]

This makes me wonder, is he actually banned from these places, or is he just told that he is banned? As in, are they just telling him that, because they know that he is an idiot and will believe that he is actually banned and could get in trouble with da JERKcops?

 

[Some JERK]

This makes me wonder, is he actually banned from these places, or is he just told that he is banned? As in, are they just telling him that, because they know that he is an idiot and will believe that he is actually banned and could get in trouble with da JERKcops?

places like walmart and target actually will have a dedicated person whose job it is to handle ejecting people from the store and giving them notice if they're unwelcome to come back, and what will happen if they do... so i'm sure that his perma-ban from walmart is legit. Fast food places aren't that organized, but they generally don't need to be because theft and disruption isn't that big of an issue in fast food. so i'm sure that his ejections from those types of places were just some employee asking him to leave, and chris assuming that it meant the same as when he was asked to leave the larger places

 

[KatsuKitty]

This makes me wonder, is he actually banned from these places, or is he just told that he is banned? As in, are they just telling him that, because they know that he is an idiot and will believe that he is actually banned and could get in trouble with da JERKcops?

What difference does it make if it's just what he's told? If they say he's bann, he's bann.

 

[milkshark]

I'd guess that Chris is somewhat known in a lot of the businesses he frequents for a few reasons;

- He sticks out like a sore thumb
- He shops/eats when most people work
- He shops out of boredom frequently
- His brain lives in the land of CWCville
- He doesn't respond well to authority ever

Clearly he is incapable of being a civil adult human, and at this point he no longer possesses a youthful appearance so he's given no leniency. Pretty soon he'll be ordering his groceries online.

 

[Surtur]

In my time at Wal-Mart, we only banned people for shoplifting. I mean we had drunks and tweakers acting out all the time but they were at worst just asked to leave for the day.

 

[Smutley]

This makes me wonder, is he actually banned from these places, or is he just told that he is banned? As in, are they just telling him that, because they know that he is an idiot and will believe that he is actually banned and could get in trouble with da JERKcops?

places like walmart and target actually will have a dedicated person whose job it is to handle ejecting people from the store and giving them notice if they're unwelcome to come back, and what will happen if they do... so i'm sure that his perma-ban from walmart is legit. Fast food places aren't that organized, but they generally don't need to be because theft and disruption isn't that big of an issue in fast food. so i'm sure that his ejections from those types of places were just some employee asking him to leave, and chris assuming that it meant the same as when he was asked to leave the larger places

In college I worked at a Walmart slinging freight during a summer, and also had the pleasure of helping out a few of my friends on Loss Prevention during with some "difficult shoppers". Back in 2002 at least, Walmart in particular will either have you arrested or have the cops there to question you if you're caught stealing anything, and depending on how you act will determine if they push it any farther then fining you and having you kicked out. They do make sure to note how you aren't welcome anymore, and depending on how big your deal is causing damage/stealing shit, Loss Prevention might have someone like me get you in an arm bar and march you back to the training room for holding.

 

[timtommy]

The replies seem to confirm what I was thinking. As I said, I haven't ever really seen or heard of many serious bans in real life, and none for anything but clearly illegal behaviour.

Chris has accumulated multiple bans. Given the bizarre behaviour that people get away with in stores, his behaviour must have been truly bizarre. Probably on multiple occasions.

I know that we all know that he is weird. But I was thinking about the bans, and began to think how extreme that is. You all have confirmed my initial impression.

A couple of things that occur to me (theories I don't quite believe)

Could Chris have done worse things than we generally think? Shoplifting, harassing other customers, etc.?

Could Chris have just been told to leave some of the places he is banned from? Previous bans (particularly GamePlace) may have put banning in his mind, and he exaggerated what happened.

I don't really think either of these is true. He was probably just weird. But the degree of the weirdness amazes me.

 

[DangDirtyTrolls]

It takes a lot for a business to outright refuse someone's custom. We know Chris stinks like and pulls stupid shit like damaging store displays and merchandise out of a complete lack of respect for other peoples' property so he pretty much forces a businesses hand in banning him.

Oh and Chris has broken bans before. He was banned from The Game Place for the umpteenth time once and he saw a sign outside saying it was under new management by Mike. Our boy genius reckoned that Mike must be a different person from the Michael Snyder who had banned him, so he ventured in and started another episode of the Christian Weston Chandler show.

 

[Some JERK]

The replies seem to confirm what I was thinking. As I said, I haven't ever really seen or heard of many serious bans in real life, and none for anything but clearly illegal behaviour.

Chris has accumulated multiple bans. Given the bizarre behaviour that people get away with in stores, his behaviour must have been truly bizarre. Probably on multiple occasions.

I know that we all know that he is weird. But I was thinking about the bans, and began to think how extreme that is. You all have confirmed my initial impression.

A couple of things that occur to me (theories I don't quite believe)

Could Chris have done worse things than we generally think? Shoplifting, harassing other customers, etc.?

Could Chris have just been told to leave some of the places he is banned from? Previous bans (particularly GamePlace) may have put banning in his mind, and he exaggerated what happened.

I don't really think either of these is true. He was probably just weird. But the degree of the weirdness amazes me.

Chris is 100% responsible for the escalation of minor situations into major ones. How many times have you been in a place of business and some employee has said maybe something like "excuse me but you you please keep it down/not tap on the glass/not touch the display/not block the fire exit" (or somesuch rule that you weren't aware existed)? Well for most of us, that's where it begins and ends, because normal people realize that when you are in a private business, the owners and agents of said business have the right to dictate your behavior on and around their property...

But not Chris. Chris makes each and every occurrence of such into a heroic stand against false-authority. And he loses every time because the false-authority he's combating is actually real whether he chooses to recognize it or not.

 

[Sakamoto]

I used to work surveillance at a casino and we had lists of easily over 1000 people who were banned.

Businesses are reluctant to ban anyone, you have to be either really be hurting their business, or do something illegal. Chris in his half-assed attempt at being a tomgirl hanging around (and probably staring at girls and talking to himself) does not help business, and they will be looking for a legit reason to ban him. It's like having a nice trimmed lawn with a big steaming dog turd laying there. And because he stands out so much and acts so strange, security people are going to be watching him from the moment he walks in, he's not going to be able to get away with anything. Most people who get banned from someplace could probably slip back in after a few months and not be noticed, but no one is going to forget Chris.

 

[Tomboy]

Well during my time at working at a McD's we had many asshole customers that should've been banned but my store manager never wanted to go through with it, and although she got sick of those people, she put up with them.

One customer in particular was this old woman who would always come in a few days after getting a meal to complain about how the food was cold. Thing is, we always made her fresh off the grill/fryer food that was hot and juicy, but she pulled this shit all the time to get free meals. She also would DIG THROUGH THE FUCKING GARBAGE CAN to get empty coffee cups, rinse them out at her house, and come in asking for free coffee refills. A few times when I was working alone with one other manager, we would refuse her the free food because I would not put up with her shit. So despite giving her fresh food so she would leave us alone, that didn't work because she'd lie and say it was old and cold.

One time she came in to complain and I dismissed her out of the store, another customer that was behind her told us that she pulled this shit with every business in town, was LOADED with money because of it, and wound up getting banned from a few places, including a grocery store.

We were used to smelly weirdos, loitering stoner teenagers, and hobos that stank up the whole place hours after they left but at least they didn't pull shit like this.

Chris picks on employees and damages business property and if anyone did something like that I'm sure they'd be banned. I had customers call me nasty things, but I'm sure everyone in retail goes through that and as long as they're not harming or taking pictures of me, I'm sure they can't be banned unless that's something they do all the time.