How should businesses respond?
So long as we continue to tolerate this behavior, it will continue. In fact, this is getting noticeably worse. I advise requiring prepayment for all services including restaurant meals. Of course, you must ask everyone to prepay, but most people will understand. Prepayment does not absolutely guarantee against bad behavior, but it does lessen the possibility and gives advantage to the business. No exceptions; if people do not like it, have the confidence to send them elsewhere.
Regarding other behavior, institute a one-strike trespass rule. I think a dress code and a no-unaccompanied-minors policy also make a lot of sense. In most businesses, all devices should be muted. Patrons should take calls and other noise outside. Or do not come back. This must be enforced rigorously. Loud voices, really any kind of noise, are symptomatic of people who cause problems. Do not tolerate it.
One other note on minors. There are some business and restaurants where children are just out of place. And the people who tend to bring children into these places are very often problematic. One might consider an across the board, no children policy.
For the businesses that can afford it, I would put guards on the doors. Cameras are helpful, but only after the damage is done. The goal should be to head off the damage in advance. Maybe you decide the guards need to hold bags and give out baggage claim tickets. These policies are common in low-trust societies.
Yes guards, just like a nightclub. Because that is the way so many people behave today. They will gladly treat your business like a rowdy roadhouse. At this point, these behaviors and attitudes are an existential threat to your business. You need to respond aggressively. In too many places, the US has already become a low-trust society. If you do not adjust to this new reality, you will go out of business.
And I would severely limit and/or curtail discussion. These people are not rational. For the most part, there is just no utility in discussion. It only escalates and exacerbates the problems. Just get them out as fast and efficiently as possible.
Along these same lines, do not be concerned by what they call you. Because you care about your business, you are obviously a racist or some other sort of bigot. And they are going to video record the situation; you know this in advance. But people are tired of their behavior. It is called fatigue for a reason. These videos most often make these so-called customers look bad. Most of the clips above prove this point. It is vital for you to keep your cool. Because they often do not, and this will work to your advantage.
At this point, I actually believe the videos will help you gain the type of customers that you want (of all demographics). Let's go to ABC business because they do not tolerate the nonsense. Same for any news reports; regardless of how negative the journalist covers your business, today it will help you. Lefty journalists may be too stupid to know what is going on. Or too cowardly to report on it. But everyone else knows the deal. We have all seen it far too often.
Besides, any reputational harm will be among the people you do not want as customers anyway. Everyone else will quietly notice, and return. Just look at the situations with Carnival Cruise Lines and Spirit Airlines. Who wants to go on a Carnival Cruise today? This is because they have allowed the ratchet behavior to fester. And people avoid them; opting instead for the competition. As for Spirit, they, very noisily, went out of business earlier this year.
The customer dynamics of your business are no different.
I do have one other suggestion. Well, not a suggestion, an anecdote. When I was a kid, my parents owned a rental beach house. It was oceanfront, but it was an older unit. Think: In demand because on the water, but older and therefore prone to age-related problems. And of course, they got a lot of complaints.
Now my parents are pretty shrewd real estate operators. And I believe it was my mother who came up with a solution to this ongoing problem. What did she do? She doubled the rent.
No more problems.
You see, when you double the rent, you get a completely new class of tenants. People who maybe understand what they are paying for and what is important. They do not tend to complain about every little thing in an old house. The type of people who would never send their food back to the kitchen in a restaurant. Nor use their phone without ear pods.
I understand that most businesses cannot double their prices. But there is a lesson here for all businesses: The type of customer you attract matters greatly.
Also this: Eighty percent of your problems will come from twenty percent of your customers. It might even be ninety/ten. So serve the eighty or ninety percent of your customers that you want and value.
Get rid of the rest.



