McDonald’s Refuses to Serve Teens in Tracksuits

One McDonald’s location in Leyland, England has a new security rule: after 7 p.m, all under-eighteens wearing tracksuits will not be served food and will be asked to leave the premises. Scott Wilson learned that the hard way.

The 16-year-old boy is telling the British media that he went to McD’s for some take out food right after work. He was wearing a tracksuit and learned that he wouldn’t be served.

Scott and his friends drove to McDonald’s unaware that a new dress code was in place to prevent bad behavior in the restaurant and to protect staff and customers, The Telegraph reports.

They got to the counter and they got ready to order, when the McDonald’s staffer told them to leave. Wilson was so outraged by the incident that he went home and changed.

He returned to the restaurant in a suit and tie, and was served instantly. Moreover, he was so upset about the stereotyping enforced by this policy that he went to the media with his story.

“I feel really upset about it and I just couldn’t just let it lie. They are stereotyping all young people and it is not fair. They didn’t make us feel welcome at all and we weren’t even going to eat in, we were taking out,” he says for The Telegraph.

“What really made me mad was when a lad in his 20s came in behind us wearing the exact same clothing and he got served straight away,” the teen explains.

“We feel like we are being discriminated against and believe that even after a hard day’s work we can not call in unless we have been home and changed into business clothes,” he underlines.

Police say that, while activity in the area has informed them of bad behavior from teens, the dress code was imposed by McDonald’s.

McDonald’s, on the other hand, has apologized to Wilson but says they will maintain a zero tolerance policy on tracksuits and hoodies at nighttime on teens.

“We are absolutely sorry to Scott and I understand 100 per cent what he is saying. We are taking advice at the moment and the police have been brilliant with us. We are taking a zero tolerance approach for the short term,” the restaurant’s manager says.