Teen and tween shoppers have long been an essential source of revenue for retailers. However, this age group is also known to be… complicated. They’re going through an onslaught of overwhelming physical, emotional, and cognitive changes, and have an innate need to prove their independence. Pair this with a still-developing frontal lobe, and you essentially have a ticking time bomb of hormones and peer pressure on your hands.
This has become even more clear as of late, with ‘teen takeovers’ disrupting malls, shopping centers, and even standalone retail locations across the country. Last September, fifty masked teens rushed into a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles and ransacked the convenience store before speeding off on bicycles. In March of this year, several hundred teens came to the Meadows Mall in Las Vegas after a ‘takeover’ was encouraged on social media, and while police said they were mostly able to prevent anything too disastrous, multiple fights did break out. In January, a group of teenagers actually drove two motorcycles high speed through a food court in the Town Center Mall in Valencia, California. Police believe that one of the riders, a 14-year‑old boy, was killed that same evening following a head-on collision just two miles from the shopping center.
And the stories go on and on.
“This is an issue that retailers have been dealing with for a long time,” said Wisconsin Organized Retail Crime Association President Telly Knetter, LPC. “Flash mob-style events that disrupt business and often result in large thefts and property damage are the biggest concerns… This is not new, but the tactics teens are using to create the disruptions are evolving. Certainly, social media has played a large role in organizing and recruiting participants.”
Not So Innocent
While some might dismiss these disruptive instances as “just kids being kids,” the consequences of allowing this type of behavior are far-reaching.
“Chaotic flash mobs put customers at risk and retailer profitability is absolutely impacted by flash mob thefts and business disruptions,” Knetter said. “Employees will find safer places to work and leave retailers with a shortage of manpower to assist customers. These events can contribute to temporary and permanent closures for retailers, especially in under-served areas of cities.”
Peter Chie, CFI, operating vice president of asset protection and risk management for Bloomingdale’s, said his stores have seen several disruptive incidents recently. One such instance, which had just happened a couple days before we spoke in April, saw juveniles entering the furniture floor of the store and marking walls with racist graffiti.
“There is an inconsistency with both adoption and/or enforcement of an unaccompanied minor policy with certain properties that has had a potentially detrimental impact on tenants within the mall environment,” Chie said. “There’s not only that, but we’ve had issues with pranks. The YouTubers come in and they’re either skateboarding or doing something physical in a store and causing a disruption. Those kinds of things happen pretty frequently out in California for us. We’ve been able to escort them out for trespassing in the building, but it’s still a business disruption.”
Joe Coll, former vice president of asset protection at Macy’s, said his stores have also seen quite a bit of disruption from unaccompanied minors, also mostly in the furniture department.
“There are incidents where large groups of unaccompanied teens do escalate behavior that does lead to harassment and criminal acts that affect customers,” Coll explained. “The larger the groups get, the more peer pressure to show off or perform for peers. If the loitering issue is not addressed, it does cause an escalation in bad behavior and, at the very least, an unpleasant environment for customers.”
Social Media’s Impact
Social media has changed the world as we know it, and today’s teens are likely impacted more than anyone. They are fluent technologists who have always lived with access to millions in the palm of their hands, and they know best how to wield that power—for good and bad.
“Social media has increased the size and speed at which a group can grow in store locations,” Coll said. “One side effect is that it increases the performative nature of the groups when a disruption does occur. They are ramping up bad behavior if they are on video or live streaming for social media attention.”
Knetter agrees that social media encourages teens to act more outrageously in the hopes of gaining online attention, or ‘going viral.’
“TikTok certainly propels some of this [disruption],” he said. “I don’t think the platform itself encourages it, but many of the events that happen are recorded and the videos are posted for likes and attention.”
Since malls have always been a go-to gathering place for teens, disruptive behavior is not new. But it is now less organic—amplified and intensified for social media, rather than kids goofing off for their own entertainment.
“[The disruption] is getting worse,” Chie said. “It’s always been there in some sort of way throughout the years, but I think it’s more prevalent today because of social media; everybody wants to be popular and get these clips, and they do that. Some people just want the attention. And unfortunately, with both parents working most of the time and kids getting their driver’s license at 16-years-old, they’re out there in the mall. That’s the place where you used to hang out with your friends. Now they go there to cause mischief.”
What Are Retailers to Do?
In many ways, retailers can react to disruptive behavior from unaccompanied minors in the same way they would react to any other sort of disruptive behavior.
“The primary concern will always be the safety of employees and customers,” Knetter said. “Most retailer policies will provide guidance to be a good witness and not try to physically stop bad actors.”
Typical de-escalation techniques and good customer service are always a good strategy.
“The first step is always customer service in any interaction where disruption is happening,” Coll explained. “Store colleagues and executives are always the first contact and give the same level of service and interaction we would provide to any other customer. Most interactions go smoothly and are positive in nature when dealing with teen groups.”
Scott McBride, chief global asset protection officer for American Eagle Outfitters, emphasized the importance of treating teen customers the same way you would treat adults.
“We prepare employees for any occurrence of disruptive activity, and we do that through our normal de-escalation training,” McBride said. “That along with the relationship building and continued communication with landlords and the mall security departments are important; there’s no one solution or magic pill. It’s always a dynamic between all of the players—the landlord or mall owner/operator along with their security team, and the retailers themselves not allowing things to escalate, not allowing incidents to become bigger problems. You have to nip it in the bud a little bit to try and set the tone for the true shoppers.”
Department store retailers might consider specific policies for their furniture departments, Coll advised.
“We have a no loitering policy in the furniture department of our downtown locations as well as internal memos that guide our teams for furniture-related business disruptions,” he said. “This allows for police to be involved when a group known to repeatedly loiter or cause disruptions in the store is observed. Police will respond and obtain contact information, and the store will issue a trespass notice. If the same individuals are seen violating the trespass notice in the future, the store team with authorization is able to partner with police to arrest recidivists for trespassing.”
Dealing with the aftermath of disruptive incidents quickly and efficiently is also key.
“If they see they can do something and repeat that offense over and over again and nobody’s going to do anything about it and there are no repercussions, that gives them an open forum to do whatever they want to do,” Chie said. “We try to prevent that by reacting quickly. We take the graffiti down and immediately paint over it. So if they come back, they notice that everything they did is gone already, and hopefully that will send a message. But more importantly, we really try to get them identified through security and law enforcement to make sure they’re going to be penalized for what they did.”
Unaccompanied minor policies are another possible solution, though they are controversial. Retailers must walk the tricky tightrope of preventing disruptive behavior while making customers feel comfortable—and teen shoppers can be a large demographic, and a profitable one.
“We do not want to stop the teens that are not involved in disruptive behaviors from coming in and having a good guest experience and making a purchase they are going to be happy with,” McBride said. “All we need to do is address the behaviors that are inappropriate, and you can say that regardless of the age of the person, it’s behavior based. When I look at the problem, I don’t see it as kids have got to go—it’s not about that. It’s that when you come into a store you should have a certain level of decorum and social responsibility for being in a space. So we ask that of our associates, we ask that of our customers, and we have this mutual contract that we’re going to treat each other with respect. When you violate that by raising your voice, making accusations, using profanity, or displaying threatening behavior, that social contract is broken and now you’re going to be held accountable for it.”
So while unaccompanied minor policies can seem like an easy fix, not everyone is on board.
“I think the biggest pushback to some of these policies is the fact that there are good kids out there, and if you ban all of these unaccompanied minors, what about those that actually want to go shop?” Chie added. “It’s a Catch 22.”
Strong partnerships with law enforcement and other community groups might be retailers’ strongest form of defense against disruption.
“Partnering with police departments’ school resource officers and community liaison officers is always a good place to start,” Knetter said.
“Partnerships with retail partners, local officials, DA’s offices, police, and local retail advocacy groups can be a key component of bringing attention and policy change to your area,” Coll added. “It is not an issue that can be resolved on your own—the community has to be galvanized to tackle an issue that affects us as a whole.”
Peter Chie said that his team makes sure to have frequent touch bases with mall security and law enforcement so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to dealing with disruption. This way, when an incident does happen, everyone knows how they should react.
“I think it’s kind of like an ecosystem where you have to drive collaboration and partnership,” Chie explained. “I’ve been an advocate for making sure there’s a trifecta partnership between law enforcement, mall security, and the retailer. Having a strong partnership between those entities is going to be the key in being aligned and able to handle these types of situations. So if you don’t have that right now, you need to, because that’s probably the most important thing. We have to work collectively together to stop the same madness from going on because these people are not only impacting a store—they’re impacting the mall environment, which impacts ultimately the traffic in the mall, which is going to affect everybody. Nobody wants that perception to be a negative one.”