Whole Foods hates kids?

Me, too.

Kids with balloons (especially in crowded spaces like grocery stores) are annoying. They bop them around, smack people when they turn around, they like to run so the balloon goes "fast", cry when they get loose and float up to the ceiling.

And it's possible that what the manager was referring to with roller skates was the shoes with wheels in them. Those are annoying, too, when kids try to race each other down aisles. A lot of stores have banned them like they've banned skateboards, rollerblades, scooters, etc.

I'm actually surprised stores give away balloons anymore. Most schools have banned them because of the choking/latex allergy hazard.

 

Along those lines, then, Whole Foods shouldn't provide those "little shoppers" mini shopping carts so the kids can follow mommy and daddy around with their own kiddy-sized cart. But they do. A small child doesn't "drive" those things any better than a 16-year-old does a car! Having those kiddie carts is basically encouraging kids to do what the manager was getting at with the comment about "roller skates."

And I get that the manager was referring to the shoes with wheels, but I don't get what that has to do with my kids walking around with their balloons tied to their hands. I think he was trying to say that he was just enforcing all company policies. But balloons are what they are -- entertainment for small kids. Running through a crowded supermarket -- adult or child -- with regular shoes, roller shoes or kiddie shopping carts -- is asking for a collision. To me, the shoes/carts vs. balloons thing is comparing apples and oranges.

 

... should have gotten his ass kicked right then and there.

 

You did the exact correct thing.

 

Next time you go in, you should see just how much you can get away with before they toss you. If nothing else, it'd be good for laughs.

 

Yeah... see if Publix or Trader Joe's sells T SHirts and put them on as you walk into the Store.. I like Whole Foods, but that's bullshit.
I would have gone to the manager, in full view of customers, and demanded a refund... loudly.

 

That's crap. Who cares if a couple of children are carrying balloons from another store? It's not like the people in there didn't realize that Trader Joe's existed until they saw a 3-year-old boy with a balloon...or that they're going to run out of Whole Foods without making a purchase because they saw a 6-year-old girl toting a Trader Joe's balloon. To me, that would be like asking you to take off a Gap T-shirt while you were shopping in American Eagle.

 

What's Trader Joe's?

 

www.traderjoes.com

home of two-buck-chuck wine, and a whole lot of reasonably priced good eats

 

I would have approached the manager and asked if he was joking. And told him it was a good one, and given a hearty laugh.

Oh, and then I'd tell the guy he's a bully and should be ashamed of himself.