@
SageWanderer I know. I was once told to leave a Circuit City in Raleigh, NC. It was very odd because they wouldn't budge even though I pointed out I was there to spend a couple of hundred dollars. They didn't actually have a sign but I noticed that I was being followed around the store and eventually some stressed looking manager arrived and told me I had to leave. When I pointed out that i was there to spend some money he immediately started raising his voice as though i had said something threatening. It was very odd
But not as odd as the time I was told to leave the North Raleigh Flea Market. Then I was confronted by a short almost spherical woman in some sort of security uniform flanked by a couple of taller, also uniformed, Latino goons and told to leave.
I don't think most Americans understand how bonkers this looks from the outside.
On both occasions, apart from my bare feet, I was conservatively dressed; better dressed than most of the other customers in my not so humble opinion!
They lost my business.
I've been told to leave establishments in the UK too but there it usually only takes one person to do it and they try to justify themselves on helthand safety grounds saying that if I step on a piece of broken glass that I could sue them. It's very unlikely that I could sue successfully because of the concept of contributory negligence.
The only place that i have been that, in my opinion, had valid grounds for saying I must wear shoes was the piercing parlour I went to in Nottingham. Their reasoning was that there was a small risk of needle stick from a used piercing needle. That seems reasonable and it only applied to the room where the piercing was performed, not the reception area.
What none of the UK places seem to understand is that by insisting I wear shoes they are actually opening themselves to greater legal risk because if they insist on footwear then that means suitable footwear but they never specify what that is. So if I put on a pair of four inch heels and trip over then I really could sue on the grounds that the shop required me to do it. A UK court would probably still find contributory negligence but it's not quite so certain and they might find that we shared responsibility.
I've been barefoot in Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, France without anyone seeming to notice.
I seem to have started ranting, I'll stop now and have some tea and a chocolate digestive!
