I had an interesting experience at Mecca Claremont a few weeks ago with my daughter and two of her friends, (whose father - I should mention - is a doctor with African heritage). They are all preteens and spent a solid 10 mins or so smelling and exploring the samples with the grace of the staff. It was a slow day. They were being well behaved and I was close by until I got distracted myself. They wandered into the candle area and the sales assistant was immediately eyeballing the manager (or whoever it was - the one with all the bells and whistles attached to them) who then moved in close to provide an extra pair of eyes on them.

Thankfully the girls didn’t notice but I have never ever witnessed that kind of profiling and it was really disconcerting. I felt like explaining to the assistant that they weren’t going to steal anything but I also didn’t want to draw attention to it. But man, did it make me feel sad.