General question about bans

[Holdek]

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 only if they have already put up a sign that says, "No outside q-sands allowed," or some such. Otherwise customers are completely entitled to do what they want.

 

[exball]

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

Hahahahahahaha! No.

 

[Holdek]

I think Chris has been actually banned from these places and not just asked to leave. He talks about how he has returned to the F. Square Mall on several successive days after being told to leave on them because he doesn't respect [cwc]manajerk[/cwc]s. And the dude not only got banned from but arrested at Target:

When he was approached by management to leave, he ignored them. When they kept pressing, he finally back talked them and called them jerkops. When the cops came, guess what Chris did....He tried to fucking run. Hence why he was hog tied.

They drove me to the county jail, but fortunately, they did not keep me there; I was released to my family. But now I have to go to court on July 29 at 9:00 AM at the Albemarle County Courthouse, close to the Downtown Mall.

So now, I feel very miserable, sad, lonely and rejected. And, while I had the handcuffs on me, both my hands, mostly my right, were seriously cut off from blood flow, and they both felt numb. It was terrible. But my mother and I are going to get back at them in court.

 

[KatsuKitty]

In my time at Wal-Mart, we only banned people for shoplifting.

Wouldn't that result in something more than a ban? I remember back in the day, Wal-mart was infamous for prosecuting shoplifters (at great expense) even if they took candy or socks.

 

[Holdek]

I worked at a music store one summer and there was this very retarded man who would sometimes come in, ask for the War albums, and take them to the listening station and just headbang and squeal loudly. He never bought anything. I worked for this hippy indie store that prided itself on being the only store in the vicinity that hadn't banned this fellow (the others being corporate and not wanting him to drive away customers).

 

[mongo]

I used to run a comic shop, and had to ban one or two particularly obnoxious customers.

Generally, it's an informal thing. "Get out and don't come back." You post their picture, you tell the employees, if he shows back up again you tell him to sling his hook.

If someone doesn't get the hint and keeps making trouble, you call the police. If the police get involved, it becomes much more of an official thing. They tell the perpetrator that he's not to come back, and if he does, he can be arrested for trespassing.

I imagine, given how many of Chris's incidents have involved the police, that more than a few of the bans are in the "come back and you go to jail" category.

 

[___]

If Chris cut his hair, stopped using cheap hair dyes, and wore normal clothes he might actually be able to walk into his local Walmart and do his shopping and get out without conflict. I wonder if that'll ever cross his mind. Chris logic would probably make him wear a stupid costume instead of just going back to normal-chris.

 

[The Knife]

In my time in retail management, we were flat-out instructed never to ban anyone OR ask them to leave due to potential legal ramifications from a discrimination suit. Only twice was anyone effectively "banned": once when a guy physically assaulted our barista, and the other when a registered sex offender attempted to lure a child into the bathroom, where he had concealed a stack of pornography. Both those times the cops had to be brought in. Technically, no one ever said the word "banned," but since they were in jail, we assumed they wouldn't be back.

We had "regulars": people who showed up a few times a month to shoplift, deface books, jerk off in the bathroom, and sexually harass employees. We all knew them on sight, but were forbidden to do anything other than follow them around asking "can I help you?" in hope of deterring them. I imagine if Chris showed up with his attraction sign, he might be sitting in our coffeeshop to this day.

 

[Iamthatis]

I used to manage a certain coffee shop inside a get-tar region and we had an autistic guy kinda like Chris who would come in and harras my female employee's he crossed the line for me when he showed a pornographic image on his phone to one of my 17 year old employee's. I tossed him out and the store manager over ruled me because of his autism. Thats why I never bought chris's version of his expulsion and arrest from get-tar region in VA.

 

[Iamthatis]

In my time in retail management, we were flat-out instructed never to ban anyone OR ask them to leave due to potential legal ramifications from a discrimination suit. Only twice was anyone effectively "banned": once when a guy physically assaulted our barista, and the other when a registered sex offender attempted to lure a child into the bathroom, where he had concealed a stack of pornography. Both those times the cops had to be brought in. Technically, no one ever said the word "banned," but since they were in jail, we assumed they wouldn't be back.

We had "regulars": people who showed up a few times a month to shoplift, deface books, jerk off in the bathroom, and sexually harass employees. We all knew them on sight, but were forbidden to do anything other than follow them around asking "can I help you?" in hope of deterring them. I imagine if Chris showed up with his attraction sign, he might be sitting in our coffeeshop to this day.

Yeah, Thats what makes me think he probably assaulted one of the manajerks. it would have to be something big like that to get the cops called on him and recieve a ban.

 

[DV 259]

At my job, since we deal with consumer electronics, we've had to ban a bunch of people, that I'm aware of, over the past year - there could be more. We're also in a mall, so some of those bans also resulted in mall bans.

Some of the mall bans we know about, (usually a memo gets circulated describing the person, their associates, offenses at certain retailers and sometimes a picture,) are for shoplifting. Others are for fighting in the food court. Some rapper named Machine Gun Kelly is not only banned from our mall (because of an incident at a mall in Atlanta in one of our stores,) but he's banned from all of our stores, permanently. (According to a guy I know at the Atlanta store, MGK jumped on some tables, smashed a bunch of computers and generally caused a ruckus.) During Holiday last year, some old guy who looked like Bruce Boxleitner attempted to steal something like $1000 worth of merch from just our store and got caught with loads more in his car from other retailers. Because the theft from our store was more than the rest of the other stores combined, our store was basically put on lockdown while he was interrogated by the police. So yeah, Tron tried to burgle our store.

Our in-store bans are an even 50/50 of shoplifters and mallrat kids. Almost all of our in-store shoplifting bans result in us pressing charges and having them arrested. Much like champ, my company doesn't bullshit. Because I work in inventory, I get pulled to the sales floor to babysit any suspected shoplifters - follow them around but don't say anything and when I'm feeling particularly badass (as badass as an overweight, 5'2, Asian girl with glasses and tattoos can be, anyway) I usually park myself uncomfortably close to them and stare at them. But mallrat kids (the category I'd put OPL in,) get banned maybe about once every 6 weeks-2 months for being obnoxious to our staff, making messes, being noisy while loitering.

To be honest, I could see Chris getting banned from my store fairly easily. If he came in, parked himself at a computer for hours, eventually he'd be asked to leave. If he put up a fuss and got management involved, then started screaming about the HEXbox, odds are he'd told not to come back. Ever. However, we also have children's birthday parties and teen gaming league nights, which I can see Chris trying to maybe wedge himself into for free food and video games. Thankfully, though, since we deal in only Xbox, odds of him trying to actually play anything would be pretty low, but I could definitely see him trying to loudly preach about the virtues of PS3/4 and Nintendo and making kind of a scene.

 

[A-№1]

the unspoken understanding is that it's more like "come back when you're […] willing to act like an adult"

But for Chris that's de facto a more or less permanent ban.

 

[GFYS]

In my youth, I was a bit of a handful. I've picked fights in stores, damaged property, and passed out in a store numerous times. Like, this was something I did on a monthly basis ( I also shoplifted, but was never caught). I've been shown the door many times, yet I've still never been banned. Shit, I once threw a gallon can of paint through a K-Mart vacuum cleaner display, wrestled with employees, threw up in their parking lot, fell asleep behind the donation bins, and I was still welcomed back a week later. They actually gave me a job the next spring. That's what's so crazy about how Chris and Barb have been banned from so many places... In my experiences, you have to do some really REALLY bad shit, or just have to be super creepy/pervy over a long time.

I think SomeJERK nailed it... Chris always escalates petty stuff, by throwing some crazy self-righteous tantrum against a fictional cabal of villains trying to make him gay.

 

[theobservdr]

Chris should be thankful he didn't run from the plainclothes security guy at my old work, the guy actually is contracted to different stores and will use force if necessary, and he told me that he actually did a Rock Bottom to a shoplifter once who got really aggressive, for those who don't know what it is, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoVvWkrFrV0

 

[CWCissey]

I've worked in various retail outlets over the past 5 years and the only people who I saw banned from the stores were shoplifters, mouthy kids, drug addicts, a really immature 'lawyer' who was upset that he couldn't get his own way regarding refunds and stupidly called the beefy biker manager a fat cunt (nearly getting a headbutt in the process) and a guy who attacked a member of staff with a Stanley knife.

 

[SlowInTheMinds]

Thankfully, though, since we deal in only Xbox,

Is selling only Xbox an American thing?

(in europe shops sell both Xbox, PS and Nintendo)

 

[Watcher]

Thankfully, though, since we deal in only Xbox,

Is selling only Xbox an American thing?

(in europe shops sell both Xbox, PS and Nintendo)

It largely depends on the size of the store and what kind of store it is. The majority of the time if they sell new products they usually sell both PS and Xbox games. As for Nintendo it's popularity is gradually waning and it's less likely to be seen in smaller stores.

 

[Cutlery Cat]

The Machine Gun Kelly incident was in a Microsoft store, so that might explain the absence of PS3. If I recall correctly this tit had been hired to perform at the store and suddely leapt on the displays, trampled the computers and badmouthed the staff. A quick Google search bring up the story and a vid shot during it.
Small wonder he's banned.

 

[Reshiram]

I've worked two retail jobs, each had a "ban wall" in the security room/staff room.

What happens when you are banned is a photo of you (either taken with a camera when you were confronted or CCTV screenshot) is put up with your name (if they have it) and any other details they have, all the staff are made aware of this.

The most common ban reason is obviously shoplifting and then there's just hooliganism. If you came into one of the stores I worked in at least and vandalised something or acted inappropriately towards multiple staff you probably would be banned, but you'd have to make a huge deal about what you did for that to happen. Like if you went into a store and wrote "HE" on the Xbox sign and were confronted and you just said "sorry I don't know what came over me it won't happen again" you wouldn't be banned.

 

[DV 259]

The Machine Gun Kelly incident was in a Microsoft store, so that might explain the absence of PS3. If I recall correctly this tit had been hired to perform at the store and suddely leapt on the displays, trampled the computers and badmouthed the staff. A quick Google search bring up the story and a vid shot during it.
Small wonder he's banned.

Pretty much this. I avoid saying outright where I work on this forum, but yeah. You can connect the dots and figure out why we don't sell PS3 or Nintendo.