Kicked out of mall for bikini top
A mother says she felt embarrassed and discriminated against after being kicked out of Tauranga’s Bayfair Mall for wearing a bikini top.
On Friday, Rotorua woman Gemma Elaine was at the beach with her family when she lost her singlet and decided to head to the mall to buy a top. But she claims she was approached by a security guard who said she had to leave the mall because she was wearing a bikini top.
Bayfair did not respond to approaches from the Herald on Sunday. A spokeperson on Friday requested written questions be sent for consideration but as of Saturday afternoon, no response was provided.
“I was mortified. I was so upset I just left. He created a scene in front of everyone by shouting across the mall, ‘Excuse me. Excuse me. Buy a shirt or leave’,” Elaine claimed.
“I said, ‘That’s why I’m here. We’re not from here so I can’t just go home and get one’.”
An entry sign states there is to be “no smoking or vaping, riding, bikes, alcohol, loitering and gang regalia”.
After taking a photo of the sign, Elaine’s husband approached security asking where the “no swimwear” rule was on the sign.
She says the security guard told her husband the rule came from the owner.
In a separate incident, staff thought to be from Bayfair also approached two teenagers who tried to enter Kmart in the Bayfair shopping centre wearing a bikini top and shorts.
Lily Quill, 16, and her friend Maggie, also 16, were approached by a man “in uniform like some sort of Bayfair security” who told the teens they could not go in.
Lily says she and her friend were “embarrassed” by the situation.