Why are places inconsistent with their policies?

A couple weeks ago, 3 friends and I went on a late night walk and went to the 2 supermarkets close by to buy soda and just chill. I wasn't wearing shoes and thought nothing of it. Neither did the employees at the Walmart and Meijer. I've gone to those stores multiple times with no problems, and all was well.

Last night, we decided to do it again, and I barefooted it. We first went to Meijer, and we were about to leave. Then an employee said "Ma'am, do you have shoes with you? Please don't come in the store without shoes" So we all thought she just wanted to kick us out for messing around with the stuff in the toy section and acting dumb. We got some soda, left and walked to the local Walmart. Again we were being a bit stupid and rowdy, but there wasn't anyone there to offend, so we figured we'd get away with it. Well, as we were almost done with our trip there, one of my friends had gone to the game section and I was with the other 2. We were heading down a main isle to games, and a woman said "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You must wear shoes in the store." So I told her I was going to go grab my friend real quick. This woman STARES at me impatiently as I walk the 20 or so feet to games. We get there ok, without me severing all my toes or dying of a horrific foot-related tragedy.As I am telling my friend we should go back to my place, a more important looking employee pops out of nowhere and says that I need to leave the store. The thing is that I don't think he had anything to do with the original woman who got on me.

Is it because we were being dumb, or is it because we were there at midnight.... or were those employees just being rude? Why do stores and such do this? When people are acting weird, do employees look for reasons to get them to leave? Or did our rowdiness make them look at us more closely than they would if I was just there buying some cereal?

 

Because they can. There are no "rules," just individuals who think they are doing something "correct." It's ALL smoke and mirrors. Go barefoot!

 

it all depends on the employees of the shift. example: i went into walgreens barefoot with some friends(most of whom were also barefoot) at 8pm to get soda and shit and none of the employs said anything nor the customers. week later, 10 am we show up to walgreens barefoot again, but this shift employees tell us we need shoes, so the girls(in my circle of friends, if a guy has flip flops, he gets made fun of) get there flip flops and get the stuff while we stay in the car. word of advice, the morning shifts are usually older people, while afternoon and late shifts are younger people.

 

Well, I just went to buy stuff I needed at Walmart and got kicked out again. Except this time, when the same woman saw me, she said "You can't be in here!" instead of the fake niceness of yesterday. I was holding some shoes, and I asked to wear them because I was going to buy them. She told me to pay for them first, and I said I was going to finish shopping first. Well, she called in the backup of the randomly appearing guy, except this time she had called him by a walkie talkie sort of thing. He and I got into it while I was looking at the pants. I told him about health codes against it not existing and the letters from all across the country from different health departments. He said "Well, I'd like to see that." We were on that subject for the longest. Then he said "If you don't leave, I WILL call the police to escort you off of the property" Then I told him, "Well, I believe Meijer has what I want there, and you can take these." I go to hand him the shoes, and he says "No, you will put those up yourself." We were on the other side of the clothing section from where I got them. So my feet are a hazard great enough for him to want to call the police on me, yet he wants me to continue to walk in the store to put something up.

I sat the shoes on the shelf with the pants I was looking at, said "I'm sure it is someone's job to move misplaced items" and walked out. Went to Meijer, found better fitting shoes than the ones I was going to buy, got the pants I wanted, came home with no problem.

 

Its a fact that people who work at Walmart have no souls...

 

Quite often it's just some employee who either doesn't like bare feet or believes in the common myths that 'all' stores have policies against it, or that it's even against Health Department rules. Fellow barefooters have checked with management after such incidents and while in some cases management confirmed the store did have an anti-barefoot policy, in other cases it turned out to be false! Walmart for example does NOT have a corporate policy against bare feet, this is confirmed from HQ, but many greeters mistakenly believe otherwise.

Of course the other way around also happens, sometimes you may go into a store which *does* have an actual policy but the employees are just busy, or the particular employee who helps you will have no problem with bare feet and will let it slide. Breaking a dress code is no serious offense (well, at least most people don't think it is, some people seem to think different, LOL) so people aren't going drop whatever else they're doing to enforce it. And I guess being rowdy or drawing attention in some other way does make people more likely to notice, many people don't look over someone head to toe (literally) especially when it is busy in the store. Btw, being *too* mousy isn't a good thing either, coming across as insecure or shy may draw bullies.

 

I'm sure some of them have souls. You know, the newbies whose souls haven't been crushed yet. I think the man was power tripping from being the assistant manager at Walmart. :smilielol5:

 

^they had souls, but they signed them over to the Walton family trust

 

it might just be that we're in the north. im in New York (state not the city) and Ratte is in Indianapolis. the north is a lot stricter about shoes and shit. for the south it is in their culture to be barefoot, up here not so much. on the matter of walmart, boycott it. you and your friends. if their bothered so much by barefooters then barefooters wont shop there.

 

Myranya, it's never the greeters who notice. It's always someone who is slightly more important than an average employee who sees me while I am looking around. Once a greeter noticed me on the way out and told me to wear shoes next time, but that's no problem.

I also don't care about one store being friendly and the other telling me to leave, but I wish it would stay the same every time instead of me having to do trial and error when I am on a mission to get some clothes! I won't be able to avoid Walmart if I get kicked out of Meijer and need something, but I know I'm going to be going to Meijer first. That guy telling me to put the shoes up myself was the stupidity cherry on top of the bullcrap sundae.

 

That shows all the more it's up to the individual person; I've heard read many posts about people who did get stopped by the greeters, and who prefer to use the garden entrance because of that. And middle- to higher-level employees are just as often mistaken about both laws and individual store policies, it's a common myth in all ranks. Really greeters were just an example, it can just as well be stockers, shift managers, cashiers... Even managers don't always know the law, have told barefooters footwear was either required by Health Dept or by headquarters.

Well that was exactly what I was trying to say, we can't expect consistency since often these policies aren't store policies at all, but are just *individuals* mistakenly *believing* there is a policy (or even law). We'll never get consistency until we've stamped out the myths. Which is going to be very hard and take a lot of time, myths run deep.

And I think it's a good thing that even the stores that do have a policy aren't always enforcing it; employees do tend to be busy with the more important tasks of running the store, and what someone is wearing *isn't* such a great big deal that people should take time to address it when there is a long line waiting for the register. If the stores were going to take a mere dress code to that level of importance, it'd be way out of proportion, would make breaking a dress code almost as important as theft, something that one couldn't possibly let slide. Wouldn't that be silly? It would also send the wrong message to any other customers who saw it, they'd get the impression being barefoot in a store is a *very* serious offense for the employees to deal with it even while they were so busy with their other tasks!

Just go to the store you prefer for other reasons (price, products), carry the state letter -and for Walmart, while there is no printed letter, throw names around and tell people you know from 'Mrs Roberts at corporate' that there is no corporate policy against bare feet at Walmart (this is from a phone convo, they wouldn't give it in writing). Then enjoy shopping barefoot when you can!

 

call 1-800-wal-mart corporate office complain loudly and the manager of the store that kicked you you out will call you and most likely give you a gift card. Make sure you claim discrimination By the way I'm a manager at a Wal-mart store

 

I really wanna try to do this.