I manage a place that sells ice cream and has an attached gifty/grocery type store (all one business). We get to see quite a few parents who let their children do whatever they want.
I literally had a kid using the wall to do a flip on the chairs, he was between 8 and 10 years old!
Not long ago, we had a parent walk away from their child to shop, and the kid opened up a Styrofoam cooler (that was merchandise to be sold) and got inside and started stomping around in it. He left dirty shoe prints and dents in the cooler, and it was no longer in sell-able condition. The cashier at the time told the kid that it wasn’t a toy, and to get out, and parent came back over. No additional action was taken, not sure if the mom apologized or not.
Today I came in and found a busted bag of rice with a note saying that “a kid dropped it”. I have no additional details on that interaction.
My question is, how do we hold these parents responsible for their children’s actions? Do we post a “You break it, you buy it” sign and request that customers pay for any damaged product while they are in the store? Does this hurt customer relations?
TLDR, parents let their kids run loose, and damage products, should we hold the parents responsible for these products, or would it hurt our customer relationships?
Personally when I go into a business and there are signs suggesting how I should behave, “you’re on camera” or you break it, you buy it, I become a timid customer and get a negative vibe. As a result I probably won’t engage as much with employees or even buy as much as I had planned. Sending such messages hurts a business more than helps it. If you want repeat customers, you will need to be aware of their level of comfort and their experience while there. Breakages, petty theft and damages are the cost of doing business. If there are high-priced items that are the brunt of the problem, you need to do a better job of placing/protecting them. As for holding parents responsible for their kids behavior, good luck.