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I’m gonna go on the record here and admit something that I’m not proud of…
In the 1990s, I was banned from an arcade called The Fun Factory at my local mall for acting like an idiot with my friends.
Of course, this was before social media or anything like that, so I snuck back in the next weekend and they never figured it out, but it was a little bit embarrassing…
But hey, you live and you learn, right?
Now check out these stories from AskReddit users about why they’re banned from businesses.
1. Excuse you.
“I once got barred from a pub for burping.
It was in the Conan Doyle pub in Edinburgh, years ago.
Our small group wasn’t being disruptive or anything – my burp wasn’t some intentional, obnoxious “display behaviour” intended to unsettle other patrons; it was actually quite discreet, and simply the result of drinking carbonated beverages, with nothing more to it than that.
But we were sitting near the bar, the barman heard, and we all got thrown out – and for objecting to it, initially thinking it was a bad joke, I got no-s**t, full-on barred.
Like I say, it wasn’t some over-the-top “eruption” of a belch – it was the same one you’d let loose in front of your own mother, followed by an “excuse me”. I thought at the time that the barman was being a neurotic, over-assertive bell-end, and my own time as a barman in the years since has only served to reinforce that impression.”
2. That sucks.
“I am banned from a bar that a friend owns, that I have played music in (at a steep discount because they were my friends), donated to their fundraisers, got them lots of vintage glassware to use for free, promoted their events, even the ones with OTHER musicians playing…
Because his wife can’t stand the fact that he and I dated briefly 35 years ago. She melts down whenever anything triggers her about it and makes his life miserable. I had NO IDEA. Apparently they were dating 30 years ago, and broke up because he broke a date with her to be the witness at my City Hall wedding (they got back together 15 years later).
I found out about this when making a Facebook post about that anniversary, and he messaged me to take it down. He explained the crazy, I complied, I thought everything was fine.
Then I get invited to the bar for a private party of theirs 6 months later and BOTH of them are being horrible to me. I am very confused. I asked him what the problem was and he said “I don’t like how we left things last December” and I am thinking, “WE?”
I went back and checked the messages, it seems right after he sent me the explanation, and before I responded apologizing for the triggering and saying I would comply, SOMEONE blocked me in his account, so I think she went in and turned it off so he couldn’t see that I was cooperating. So he thought I blew him off.
I sent emails, texts and a certified letter with screenshots, showing what happened, but he is still mad. So OK then.
It is really sad as I loved the place and loved playing there, and it is a nexxus of our social group, but now I cannot set foot in there.”
3. Banned!
“I was banned from an arcade for picking up quarters.
I was a very young kid, and saw that people would drop quarters and just never bother to pick them up or didn’t know they dropped them. So I would pick them up from around the machines, nothing dangerous nothing suspicious, and use them to play. I’m not talking about quarters people just dropped, but ones that are sitting there on the floor with nobody around covered in dust webs and sand.
The attendant argued they were not mine and belonged to the shop and I was stealing. I can kind of see that point sinces it private property, but I was like 7 years old, spent plenty of my own money in the arcade, and I spending all the quarters I found right back into their rigged claw maches.
It was just a s**tty thing to do to complain and ban me, all they had to do was say not to pickup the quarters and I would’ve stopped.”
4. You’re out!
“When I was 12 my favorite thing to do was play laser tag at the one laser tag place in our town. I’d go every Friday night and play for 3 hours or so.
There weren’t many other regular players, so nobody else was getting better at it like I was. After about a year I was just wrecking everyone and the owner ended up banning me from the place because it was driving away customers. It really sucked because it was favorite activity and I was just immediately cut off from it.
6 years later I found a place in another city that had other players that played regularly so I was able to start playing again with people at similar skill levels.”
5. Party foul.
“I dr**kenly stumbled into the big pyramid of wine glasses that were, for some reason, stacked on the side of the bar…
After they all fell and smashed everywhere causing a huge scene I proceeded to tell the bartender that it wasn’t me.
Two seconds later I was in a headlock being dragged outside by a large bouncer.”
6. Never come back.
“I got “banned” from Six Flags Great Adventure (NJ) several times in the early 90s. Back when I was in high school, season passes like $40 or something, making it a no brainer to buy one if you intended to go at least twice.
My friend and I went probably 5-7 days a week since we lived close by. We knew the park and its operations better than pretty much anyone who didn’t work there, and eventually grew too comfortable with taking shortcuts through employee areas, trying to climb things we shouldn’t, bothering other guests, and overall being a bunch of New Jersey Teenagers (aka jerks).
Thing is, the only IDs we had on us were our Season Passes, which we always assigned fake names for no preplanned reason. (Summer of 1994 my pass said Oskar Schindler). We eventually got in so much trouble they would take our passes and tell us we were banned for life.
Well, another $40 at the front gate and boom, back in as Itzhak Stern. They needed at that time to figure out the flaws in their system.”
7. Bummer.
“This is how I got banned from Chuck E Cheese.
I figured out that I could take a ball from the game where you shoot the clown’s teeth and use it at the skeeball machine. The skeeball machine would count the points but not the ball used, which enabled me to play forever with just one ball and max out the machine.
I did it on two skeeball machines before someone noticed and I got banned/kicked out.”
8. What do you think you’re doing?
“Taking pictures of produce and price signs at a small grocery store while shopping.
I was just trying to keep track of which stores had which food at cheaper prices so I could plan my shopping trips.”
9. Big-time crime.
“I was banned from the library as a kid. Overdue fees, they let you go up to $70 before canceling your card.
I was an avid reader and my mom h**ed taking me to the library, always said she would and then changed her mind last minute. It was a 6 mile walk round trip so I would take a wheeled suitcase and get around 25 at a time, the fees added up fast.
I resorted to stealing books and returning them and I’m pretty sure some of the Librarians just turned a blind eye. They forgive the debt when you turn 18.”
10. Run for it!
“Feeding the seagulls. We ruined the entire upper decks dining experience with a few french fries.
Dozens, maybe 100 swarmed. It was like a scene from “The Birds.” People had to evacuate.”
11. Safety check.
“Banned from the college cafeteria for taking in a digital food safety thermometer, and a copy of the state health department temperature ranges.
They were consistently 20°F-40°F low, and food poisoning was a common problem.”
Have you ever been banned from somewhere?
If so, share your stories with us in the comments.
Thanks a lot!
