Doing it for the kids

I was intrigued by a story I saw this week in the Daily Mail about a rural shopkeeper who writes the names of her customers on the packaging of snacks they buy.

According to the Mail, postmistress Yvonne Froud marks each wrapper with the name of the buyer in black permanent marker pen. Then any customer whose name turns up on a piece of rubbish found in the street is temporarily banned from the shop. The idea is that they take responsibility for that waste and put it in the bin.

Froud, who runs the post office in Joys Green in the Forest of Dean, Gloucester, explains that her system works because the rural community is so small. She says she knows the name of every local resident and so cannot be fooled by customers using aliases.

But reading on it becomes apparent that, the woman “on a crusade”, is only applying this system to young people. Surely this is age discrimination. Does this postmistress think only children drop litter? This assumption is something many law abiding children would hotly deny. But of course when you are taking a stand it’s easy to start with those already demonised by some sections of the press and least likely to complain.

Read the full article at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1163132/Shopkeeper-writes-customers-names-sweet-wrappers-drink-cans--stop-dropping-litter.html

Claire Churchard, senior reporter, MRW