Just when I thought Lower Merion couldn’t get any more ridiculous…well it IS a full moon…but I digress…. Anyway, a Kimco Realty babe at Suburban Square (using that term very loosely) called the police on GIRL SCOUTS SELLING GIRL SCOUT COOKIES IN A LITTLE RED WAGON in Suburban Square ! Picture of a red wagon below for illustration.
Yes, this really happened. So imagine my horror when I saw this in Philadelphia Magazine and a big HT and thank you to Victor Fiorello for covering this :
Suburban Square Calls Cops on Girl Scouts Selling Cookies
Only on the Main Line does a dad request police body-cam footage from a Girl Scout cookie incident.
by VICTOR FIORILLO· 2/27/2024, 12:16 p.m.
Suburban Square Calls Cops on Girl Scout Cookie Sales
It’s that time of year: Girl Scout cookie season! ….Most of these Girl Scout cookie sales you see go off without a hitch. But that wasn’t the case on a winter Wednesday earlier this month at Suburban Square. That’s the very Main Line-y shopping center in Ardmore.
Ardmore resident Eric Lowry showed up outside the Starbucks at Suburban Square with his 13-year-old daughter…Between his two daughters, Lowry has been helping sell Girl Scout cookies for close to 10 years. And he says he’d never been told that the girls couldn’t sell wherever they chose to. They’d even sold at Suburban Square in the past.
But on this particular day, an executive with the Suburban Square management group, Kimco Realty, approached Lowry and his daughter and asked them to move. “They said we had to stop selling cookies because we were standing on private property,” Lowry tells me, insisting that the specific spot they were on was not private property, but public. “They threatened to call the police as some kind of intimidation tactic.” Lowry flat-out refused to move and dutifully documented the encounter on his cell-phone camera.
At some point thereafter, the Suburban Square executive relocated to a different part of Suburban Square. There, she spoke with officers from the Lower Merion police department who had arrived on the scene. As seen on police body-cam footage that Lowry later obtained and published on YouTube (yes, this guy actually jumped through the required hoops to obtain body-cam footage from the cops), the Suburban Square executive explained her dilemma to police.
Part of that dilemma, it becomes apparent, is that Lowry’s Girl Scout cookie setup was outside of Starbucks. And Starbucks is a Suburban Square tenant that sells cookies, so the Girl Scout cookies were presumably creating a business conflict. She said that Starbucks was “freaking out.” (A manager at that Starbucks told me they have no comment on the matter.)
And Starbucks is TOTALLY part of this and they don’t want to comment? The big enormous coffee company couldn’t handle little GIRL SCOUTS pulling a little red wagon? They viewed them as competition we guess? Yo David and Goliath, Starbucks? Remember how that sitch turned out? I will be honest, I do not buy anything from Starbucks and have not for years. Their coffee always tastes burnt and they are overpriced on everything.
So Starbucks is no stranger to controversy from coast to coast, and aren’t saying anything according to Philadelphia Magazine. If I still lived in Lower Merion, truthfully I would put THAT Starbucks and Suburban Square on my skip it list. (They get all touchy when you say “boycott” so I would merely spend my money elsewhere as a personal choice.)
Part of the problem I have with this after watching that video that Philadelphia Magazine got from the dad (body cam footage I guess which is technically public information if you want to pay for it, which is what the dad did), is the whole misconception by Kimco’s doofy chick on camera talking about the sidewalks as if it was their private street? Really? I thought St. James place in Ardmore has been a public street in Lower Merion Township since the 1930s? And sidewalks are not public any longer? And Coulter Avenue is a public street too, right? Does Kimco own the Lower Merion roads/ streets now? Very confusing and am I suffering from bobble head disease? I sure hope not.
Of course what really piqued my interest here, is I actually know who the dad is. I knew Eric Lowry peripherally from when I was active in Ardmore and lived in Lower Merion Township. He’s a very nice man with a nice family. Active in the community. Helpful. And he is a very peaceful person, so Ms. Kimco 2024 must have been something special for him to go buy body cam footage etc. (Lower Merion charges for the privilege and it’s more than the cost of a couple of boxes of Girl Scout Cookies.) Also if Ms. Kimco 2024 was recorded by him during their interaction, there is no expectation of privacy in a public space and that took place on a public sidewalk. I guess she gets that now?
Of course also as per Philadelphia Magazine, now Kimco seems to have issued a cover their ass statement. They will give them a booth but they have to fill out a form? Does everyone do this with Girl Scouts? I simply don’t know but honestly? Those people were hostile towards kids selling cookies? The hell with them. I feel utterly disgusted by this example of stupid human tricks.
Please note, I do not have a problem with Lower Merion Police Department here. I feel for the officers that had to deal with the Kimco people. Lower Merion Police Department did not cause this, Ms. Kimco Realty 2024 and apparently Starbucks did. And as for Kimco, their statement to Philadelphia Magazine IMHO is not an apology, and there should be one. That entire Girl Scout Troop in my humble opinion deserves an apology spa day in Suburban Square with lunch on Kimco as far as I am concerned. And Kimco can certainly afford it.
This just blows my mind completely. It’s mean. Again, no tables or booths, they were pulling a little red wagon. It doesn’t get cuter than that.
Support your local Girl Scouts and help these kids meet their cookie goals. And support your local coffee shop and let chain Starbucks sit. And maybe trade in Suburban Square for Main Street Ardmore which is always more user friendly.
Again, please support Girl Scouts selling Girl Scout Cookies. It’s as American as Apple Pie. Calling the police on little girls selling Girl Scout cookies is NOT.
And I will tell you that if you don’t wish to bring Girl Scout cookies into your own house because you don’t eat them or whatever you can buy them as a donation and the Girl Scout troops will give them to people who need a little extra treat in the community.
This opinion is brought to you by the First Amendment.
Thanks for stopping by.
When tenants of a store in a shopping area complain ,it is the job of the property manager to respond,from what I see in the video the father did not answer any of the request by the property manager and refused to go to a safer and better area sugested by the property manager,I think you should write about the 1,000 kids that died last month from drug overdoses,instead of stupid subjects like this.
I really hate when I am told what I should be writing about and mansplained to. It’s not up to you what anyone else writes about.
The property manager, and the shopping center do not own the public sidewalks or the public streets. This is a shopping center in the middle of a residential and other commercial area they like to think they own this part of Ardmore but they actually do not own the public streets and public sidewalks. And I also happen to know this father from when I used to live in that area, he is a nice man who goes out of his way to help others. And if I had some random person, screaming at me and my kid, I wouldn’t answer their questions either. This is not a stupid topic. It’s a topic of right and wrong and it’s a topic of people don’t even know who owned the sidewalks and streets in their community and that includes this dip from Kimco . I will further point out that on the other side of where this shopping center has stores, also on a public street and sidewalks. There was a protest going on that they did not call the police on.
If you find what I write about so objectionable, it’s a big bad Internet out there and I invite you to find other websites to be a pain in the ass on https://thisislowermerion.com/despite-rally-and-counter-rally-hostages-are-not-returned-and-gaza-war-continues/
Honestly, were you there? I think not by what I read. Apparently you know the man that claimed he was yelled at and treated unfairly but before you wrote this did you ever think to get “Ms.Kimco’s”or any bystanders take?
No, instead you chose to take one persons word and take that as all the facts you needed to know and purposely tried to damage 2 companies and a employee ( who by the way is a real person). I respect that you can write about whatever you choose but if you have this much time, you should get all the facts on what you choose to put out there. Our society has too much negativity and you and your opinions just add to it.
Be kind
Oh gosh, the world is full of people telling me how to think today.
My opinions are not illegal. They are brought to you by the first amendment.
I took the word of someone who may know not because they’re some close personal friend, but because we used to live in the same community for many years. And when you know someone even peripherally, you know if they have honor or not.
And yes, the world is full of opinions. You don’t have to like mine. Be kind?
I am kind… when it’s deserved.
And by the way, my opinions are damaging anything. The actions of the people involved is what caused the damage like Starbucks complaining about a Girl Scout pulling a little red wagon and the Kimco person not understanding what a public sidewalk and public street actually is.
Oh help me Lord. Where are our priorities?
EXACTLY. A girl and her dad. I mean, they should be thrilled that any parent on the main line is spending a lot of time with their children, because a lot of those mainliners leave their kids to be raised by other people