The Seventh Avenue Barnes and Noble infuriated local parents and caregivers by deciding to BAN PEOPLE FROM WALKING AROUND THE STORE WITH STROLLERS. They want people to park their strollers in a designated area upstairs.
It was just a simple note on the front door. And it got people pretty fired up.
Doesn’t sound that unreasonable to me.
Much ado on Park Slope Parents and elsewhere. Here’s a PSP post from an employee of Barnes and Noble AND a local mom.
Hi all - full disclosure, I am a Park Slope mom who also works for
Barnes & Noble, specifically for the website. I have followed this
thread with concern, because like many of you, I consider the Park
Slope store to be an essential place to hang out with my kids, especially in
cold weather, in or out of their strollers.
I just wanted to let everyone know that I have brought the community's generally
negative response to the new rule to the attention of a director in the company
who is in charge of store operations, and she is working with the store
manager to find a better solution.
I can't say for sure whether this means the ban will be lifted, but the concerns have definitely been
heard, and I'm hopeful that there will be more flexibility on this. If
I hear anything more specific, I'll post the details.
How utterly disingenuous so many of the “pro-strollers-anywhere” postings are here. The reason the Stepford moms in this enclave are so militant is because they have found themselves in an untenable situation – trying to vicariously fulfill an image of what an imaginary perfect childhood would have been like if only they had the overly-indulgent, enmeshed parents they’re trying to be, while simultaneously trying to live a gratifying, boundless 21st Century lifestyle. And who’s suffering? Well, not just the other patrons who are either single or are mature enough parents (like me – father of 2 young ones) not to bring their kids to coffee shops, bars or yes, most bookstores (at least until they’re past stroller age). No, the annoyance of other adult human beings who want to live in peace in Park Slope is not horrific. The real tragedy here is what is being done to the kids. And how telling is it that some parents are trying to classify children in strollers in the same category as disabled people in wheelchairs? Doesn’t that kind of perfectly symbolize the sad plight of these kids whose parents do in fact treat them like disabled princes and princesses? (See “THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE” by Dinah Maria Craik at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Lame_Prince_and_his_Travelling_Cloak)
Peter Loffredo
http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/
I also don’t see anything wrong with requesting that parents leave the strollers in a designated area. Especially if they are going to be responsible for them if they get taken. The thing is I’m sure they’re probably not. In the end, since you’re ostracizing customers it really doesn’t make sense unless you’ve had non-stroller pushing customers complain and quit shopping there.
If this really burns you up, you might see what happened to this Barnes and Noble (http://www.theaveragepersonsblog.com/content/arnes-noble) as karma.
I currently have a human rights complaint regarding my post office that does not allow strollers. A stroller is for a person that cannot walk, just like a wheelchair. It also helps to refrain the child from going ‘haywire’ through out the store. Please please please give the tired mothers a break, its hard enough to find time to take in a shower. Its wonderful to see parents encouraging children to read. Barnes and Noble will be replaced by video game stores if we do not embrace children in our libraries and book stores. Thank you to all the men and women who offer to hold doors open, or assist with unloading of groceries. These people remember what is was like to juggle family duties.
I agree sort of with Stasha. Park Slope and its Barnes and Noble are more a suburban experience than a few years ago. If you want an edgy, interesting book shopping experience you won’t be at Barnes and Noble and you won’t be in Park Slope. I daresay I’m not sure where you’ll be in NYC actually. Even a place like St. Marks Books is not what it was even 5 years agao when you might run into Susan Sonntag on a Friday Night.
Park Slope has lost what edginess it may have had and has become a homogenous yuppie neighborhood much like the one I fled when I first moved to the city. Alas it is no longer a neighborhood where dykes can meet up at the local coffee shop. If we have kids I guess we can meet up at the local Starbucks! Ugh!
Sorry but I will not succumb to this crazy notion that I cannot go into certain places just simply b/c I have a child in tow. It’s ‘downright ridiculous. You say so simply and easily to “hire a kid or sitter for a few hours.” Not always so easy, not always so cheap. And I don’t personally go into B&N to sit there clogging up the aisles while excercising my intelligence. Maybe I pick up a few magazines or a book I know I want. Or perhaps a gift or a return or to bring my son down to the kids section. Which ok, depending on age, I’ll agree, we don’t need our stroller down there. But I find it sad that we live in a culture in Park Slope of ALL places that looks down on having children in a bookstore! Absurd. Why not stop clogging up the aisles then sitting down on the floor reading all the books instead of buying them. You did not respong to that. That’s ok I suppose? YOu can block the aisles doing that but heaven forbid bring a stroller (i’m sorry a $1000 gold plates stroller as you put it) in and kindly move out of the way if someone wants to pass. I certainly move that stroller faster than any single person that has been sitting on the floor blocking that section I want to look in. I think more than being peed off about the idea of parking the strollers, I’m just completely ashamed of the nasty and rude responses and attitude towards mothers/children and families on this thread. It’s sad actually and I’ll say it again, most esp in this neighborhood! Bigger fish to fry……
Having raised four kids with strollers (including twins in a double stroller) I feel your pain.
Back in the Olden Days in the 90s, when we would walk down 7th avenue with our twins in the double stroller and other little ones held by the hand, the looks we would get as we tried to round the corner outside Connecticut Muffins, you would think that we were a walking ecological disaster or sociological nightmare since we had 4 kids (as I said in another context once, in the now defuncton Brownstone Brooklyn Father of Twins Newsletter, “Barry Commoner [having campaigned for him for Presuident in the 80s] would slap my face..”).. but yeah, we were self-conscious then about having a larger family but we ceratinly did not expect other people — especially those without children– to understand or care about our troubles or inconvenience or struggle with the strollers, bags, etc ..it was a phase, we labored because we loved having kids, a family, it was just another little sacrifice that society exacted since the USA is not the most parent-child-friendly culture..
OK, but that said, Cmon — What you want at Barnes and Noble is Your Adult Time..if you want to take them to the kids section to read, you don’t need the stroller…but if you want to exercise your Glorious Mind while the kid is strapped in the stroller so that you can peruse the aisles freely then get a local teenager or sitter to take the kid for a walk for a couple of hours..
People without kids (and those with older kids who have been through your Phase) don’t necessarily want to be jostled or squeeze through aisles..and frankly, in case there was a fire (G-d forbid) would people really unstrap their kid from the $1,000 gold-plated stroller and run or futz with the thing and try to get kid and stroller out of the store… I don’t even want to think about that…it is in part a safety issue…
I have had kids in strollers (now all teens) and I don’t think that parents have a right to have strollers “anywhere at anytime” — Park Slope is crowded and congested enough..
I cannot believe the posts that are coming out of people’s “mouths.” This is insane. B&N, for God’s’ sakes, is a chain book store. It’s in nearly every mall now in America. It’s not the Strand, it’s not the artsy little book shop on the corner w/ aisles barely big enough to fit a person carrying anything but themselves. It’s a store open to the public, and that means all kinds of people of every age, race and denomination are welcome or should be. Although you’d never know it from the sounds of it, especially the lovely comment from psychotherapist mom (I feel badly for your children!) who cannot apparently stand to listen to a child make a peep (pyschotherapists never do take their own good advice).
I understand, I really do, that strollers can make it a bit tougher to reach over to get that new book you’ve had your eye on, but so what, seriously? I mean, come on people, we live in NY. Space is tight as it is. And often times PEOPLE are in the way too. I mean, how many times have I had to step over 5 people sitting in the aisle while trying to check out a section at B&N? You’re lucky if anyone moves an inch and I find myself apologizing for “moving” them out of their cozy little spot. So before you start going off on how strollers are raining down on your parade, please consider that. I’m a mom to a 16 month old (but just a few short years ago I wasn’t anyone’s mom and I was never not once bothered by a stroller at a bookstore or anywhere for that matter, but maybe it’s just b/c i’m a considerate person like that). At this point my son is walking,hell he’s running. So let’s see if I let him loose anyway other than the children’s section,will that be your next complaint then? I do carry him around occasionally in my Ergo carrier but I’m a petite woman and he’s getting to be quite heavy so that doesn’t always work either. So what should we do then for those that aren’t walking? Just park the stroller and hold them the entire time? Or better yet, just stay home. Yes, we’ve gone to the museum and spent countless hours at the park (while it’s nice out) but once in a while I’d like to grab a magazine (oh and to the person who so brililantly said “bookstores are for buying books and leaving,” oh really? So what about all the folks sitting around reading magazines and clogging up the aisles!? )or pick up a book for a friend as a gift or grab a cup of coffee and sit down for a few min before I get back to my diaper duties. Geez, you people need to get off your high horses and get a grip. If you’d put all this negative complaining energy into say, helping starving nations then we’d live in a much better world and a kinder one at that.
I just want to say I’m always super courteous w/ our stroller. If someone even looks like they need to get by where my stroller is I pull it in another direction as quick as can be. And yes,I have strolled into someone accidentally (or perhaps on occasion b/c they are not watching where they’re walking) but I ALWAYS apologize. Who hasn’t ever walked into another person accidentally w/o a stroller? Not saying all stroller drivers are considerate but don’t generalize us ALL in one large clump. It’s insulting and quite frankly a bit discrminatory if you ask me. This whole thing really reeks of it.
Time to focus on more important things in life than ruining your precious coffee psyschobabble at the neighborhood B&N. SHame on y our B&N for your decision. I have a STRONG feeling it will not last long.
A peed off mama
Not only as a grown-up resident of Park Slope, who occasionally would love the experience of having a quiet read or cup of coffee in a local establishment, but also as a parent myself, and even moreso as a psychotherapist of thirty years who has worked with families and children, I applaud Barnes and Nobles’ stroller restrictions. Yes, it is rude – and I think part of an unspoken desperation by overwhelmed mothers – to push and park a behemoth stroller anywhere you see fit, just as it is utterly inconsiderate to intrude your child’s formidable ability for making extremely disconcerting, high decibel noises in places where adults gather for contemplative activities like reading or sipping coffee. But worse is that the children of such parents are being taught how to become cranky, unyielding narcissists, without any of the necessary frustration tolerance that makes for a well-adjusted adult life. Shame on you, Parl Slope parents. Thank you, Barnes and Nobles.
yeah you guys all need to grow up. A reatail store is ment to be inviting and have good customer assistance and all that wonderful stuff. It is not ment to be a child care, social day care or anything else along those lines. Also Strolers present a loss prevention risk…people can just put (or forget they put) books in there and just walk out with them. then there is the safty aspects. All those parents out there that use a stroller thats great but you must use them wisely and be aware of your surroundings.
Barnes and Noble absolutely stinks
Strollers are vehicles for people who cannot walk – some cannot walk at all, some cannot walk for long distances reliably. If B&N banned *wheelchairs* because they clogged the aisles, imagine the outrage. But what is a stroller if not a wheelchair?
Ditto for MTA buses, by the way, which will stop for five minutes to let a wheelchair passenger on but force a bag-laden mother to unload a sleeping baby from a stroller and fold the thing. Perhaps someone will market a stroller that looks like a wheelchair to avoid such discrimination.
Good Lord, they act as if B&N has said “All Children must be thrown into gas ovens!!”
Strollers ARE a significant obstacle, both for those who tote them around and (especially) for those politely trying to walk past them while the owner is oblivious to all courtesy. If I were the manager of this store and some screaming, entitlement-minded mother told me she was never shopping there again because of the ruling, I’d think to myself “GOOD RIDDANCE! Now maybe we’ll have a generally friendlier customer base around here!”
It’s not the vitriolic attitude towards children, but instead it’s the vitriolic attitude (justifiably so) towards selfish parents who feel such a sense of entitlement as to believe that a bookstore doubles as a day-care center. That neighborhood is so over.
“I consider the Park Slope store to be an essential place to hang out with my kids”
Gosh, and here I always thought a bookstore was a place for people to go in, buy books, and leave. What could I possibly have been thinking?
Just further evidence about the prevalent attitude toward children: a burden instead of a blessing, a liability instead of an asset. The comments posted prior to mine only serve to highlight this attitude further.
Yes, those with strollers who run into people are wrong. It’s either a mistake or a lack of courtesy. But the vitriolic attitude towards children is equally disturbing, and even more selfish.
“I consider the Park Slope store to be an essential place to hang out with my kids.”
It’s a store, not an amusement park. Go to a museum, go to a movie, or, better yet, stay home!
Tony V, I couldn’t agree more. These moms with strollers have no qualms about crashing right into a person. They seem to feel entitled to all-purpose right of way.
Let’s face it — strollers are a menace to pedestrians all over Park Slope. The first warm day in Spring brings out gazillions of these three-wheeled nuisances.
I almost rather have people whizzing by on Seqways because these slow-moving space hogging vehicles are simply an intolerable presence.
If I were running B&N, I would highlight Jonathan Swift’s works, including A Modest Proposal. That would be a good start.
I noticed the stroller parking during the pre-Christmas/Hanukkah rush. I was actually thrilled to have someplace to “park”. I hate navigating a store with the stroller, but always felt weird just abandoning it near the window.
And, I’m sure, if your child was sleeping or very young, B&N would never force you to park your stroller.
(I worked for B&N in NJ as a teenager. The company was always super customer-friendly.)
I agree. It does seem perfectly reasonable to ask people to park strollers somewhere so that they don’t clog up the isles. I have kids and sometimes wish I could bring a stroller everywhere, but come on….Barnes and Noble is trying to operate a business here. I for one say “Cut ’em some slack and park your strollers!”
Louise,
I think the wording of your post is misleading. B&N is not banning people from walking in the store with strollers, they are just asking parents to leave them in a designated area upstairs when they are shopping and/or hanging out with their children.