A father has spoken of his shock after his teenage daughter was refused entry to a home furnishing shop.
The Brighton man, who wishes to remain anonymous, was surprised to discover his 15-year-old daughter had been turned away from the recently opened Ikea in Churchill Square shopping centre, Brighton.
After going along to the Swedish home store on August 27, she was refused entry for being under 16 and unaccompanied, he said.
“While I fully support age restrictions on buying certain items, I fail to see the reasoning behind refusing entry to a 15-year-old who is patiently queueing up, waiting to spend their money in a furniture store,” he said.
“Legality of age discrimination aside, the policy is also a nonsense. For example, supposing I accompanied her to the store and once inside went to a different area or God forbid left the store entirely. Would she be asked to leave too?
“There is nothing on the Ikea website to inform customers of this rule either for that matter.
“Presumably they will argue [it was motivated by] the dangers of shoplifting from teenagers, but again, I really am uncomfortable with the notion of assuming guilt purely based on the age of a person who has done nothing wrong at all.”
A spokeswoman for Ikea apologised "for any upset and inconvenience caused".
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Ikea opened to much fanfare on August 14, with hundreds of people, some who had queued for hours, streaming through the doors of the shop to the tune of Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! by Abba on the steel drums.
The father said that a friend recently challenged one of the store’s security guards after their child was also refused entry.
“Apparently ‘some’ young children had been causing trouble in the store, in terms of petty vandalism and shoplifting, and so the decision had been taken to ban all young people unless accompanied,” he said.
“Further to that, if children ever became unaccompanied during the visit, for example if they came with a parent but then separated, the instruction to security was to actually escort them from the store.
“I just feel that it is shame that Ikea want to be welcomed to Brighton yet have arbitrarily decided, in secret, to exclude potentially hundreds of customers at the door.”
A spokeswoman for Ikea UK and Ireland said: “We regret the incident that occurred on August 27 involving a young customer who was turned away from our store and we sincerely apologise for any upset and inconvenience caused.
“We are currently reviewing the circumstances to ensure that all individuals are treated with fairness and respect. Our stores are open and welcome to everyone, and we remain committed to upholding that standard across all locations.”
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