Is it a stores or establishments legal right to kick you out or ban you from thier property without a good reason, like say for being barefoot or just because they feel like it? I mean i can see how it might be thier right being its their property, but i can also see that it shouldn't be legal becasue its a public place and we are granted out civil rights and liberties to do with out bodies and dress as we please. What do you all think? I live in the US, Michigan.
I'm not really sure. I wish I knew though. As far as my opinion on the topic I think we should be able to go to the store naked if we want. Unfortunately, it offends some people. This country is WAAAAAY too politically correct and it's stupid!
Yes it is within their legal rights - they are opening their establishment to the public, and so they can set the rules about who they let on to their property. Having said that, there are also laws that protect people from being unfairly discriminated against - which is why stores can no longer deny entry based on things like skin color, as they once did. However, there is still a bias towards an "accepted" standard of dress, and in a lot of cases that does include the "no shoes, no shirt" rule we often see. You won't get any argument from me that it's silly to deny a potential customer who is barefoot simply because of that fact - but there would have to be a change in the community at large to accept bare feet as being within those standards before anything can change. What we need is a legal precedent, but that takes someone willing to stand up and be a champion to that cause. I know it's not me!
Matthew said it pretty good, Yes you can be denied entry and/or banned for being barefoot. if you refuse to leave you "can" be arrested for tresspass. even though it is open to the public, it is still a private place and the owners have final say so.
If you can't fight them on any legal standing, then fight them on principle. You can at least give a poor review of a store if you feel the need to. Once a store has a few bad marks against it, perhaps the operators will start to reconsider their position, assuming that they understand why they received the bad reviews.
Yeah, MASS NUDE WALK IN! LOL! Is it Indecent exposure if the person/s are nude in a non offencive fashion? Still, If a person walks into a shop barefoot, then...so what. So far, Nobody has thrown me out of a shop for being barefoot. Nobody here gives a fuck if you are barefoot unless they are REALLY prudish and/or idiotic. I'd like you walk into a REALLY posh place (Jenners Dept store, maybe even the Scottish Parliament Building), Just to see what happens... Prittey much everywhere is barefoot friendly where I am, nobody has a problem...
I think a lot of it has to do with the company covering their own ass. They have to put up signs like that in case some dumb ass steps on broken glass. They can say... see, the sign said not to come in w/o shoes. I've never had anyone tell me to leave to store if I don't have shoes on! That or... what Wal*Mart associate would want to be seen getting into a fist fight with a hippie just because they didn't wear shoes into the establishment? People would be like, "did you hear about that satanic walmart associate who beat up that little hippie. Them poor hippies... all they want is peace and love." Walmart would go down hill and nobody would shop there anymore. The company would shut down and then the economy would go into a downward spiral and crumble... followed by the decline of America and rise of some piddley country...... like Lithuania! All because some punk ass teenage walmart associate jumped a hippie because he though he was protecting the company from a law suit....... I'm a glass half full kind of person!
As far as I know, people are mainly protected against discrimination for practical reasons. We can put on shoes (or put on a tie, or put on a shirt, or take out our piercings, or cover up our tattoos, etc) but people can't change their race, skin color or gender. Even religion can't be 'changed', however we can change outward signs of religion. And at least for employment & schooling, courts here in Europe are currently often debating whether employers are allowed to require employees to take off their head scarfs or whether even burqa's should be allowed. So legally, yes, stores and restaurants can discriminate against barefooters, or shirtless people, or even people not wearing a tie. However morally/ethically speaking, I think it's just as wrong for people to discriminate on choice of dress as it is to discriminate on skin color. For argument's sake, if a person could change their skin color, would it be okay for a store to require a black person to 'change to white' when visiting? I don't think so! As long as a person's appearance doesn't harm the store, it shouldn't be allowed to discriminate against them, regardless of whether their appearance is a matter of birth, religion, permanent lifestyle, or just the choice of the day. And no, barefooting does NOT put the store at risk. This is only an excuse; barefooters have called insurance companies and no one has yet been able to find one that requires or even recommends shoes for customers. Also, if a store were truly concerned about liability, they wouldn't single out bare feet, they'd ban more risky footwear like high heels & platform shoes too. However, as it currently stands stores that ban bare feet (even if they claim safety reasons) would happily allow you to go to your car, retrieve a pair of 6" heels, and wobble in. A safety rule? I think not! Only if a place is consistent about *safe* footwear, like construction sites where closed -or even steel-toed- footwear is required, would this reason be okay and not discrimination. Other customers being turned off is a stupid excuse too; the barefooter is a customer too. Sure, they aren't in the majority, but the people who're truly upset by bare feet aren't that common either, most people who wear shoes don't really care one way or another. Also many other things that people may or may not like (like the tattoo's, very short miniskirts, whatever) are generally allowed and definitely don't seem to warrant a sign on the door.
