Shot in the Foot

Today my mom pointed out a newspaper article (Houston Chronicle. 12/4/2005. "Mall blocks chess players".) to me. Apparently, in Irondequoit, New York, the new owners of the Medley Center suburban Rochester mall have banned chess and card games from their food court. The reason? They don't buy anything. One of the owners, Adam Bersin, said, "It's kind of tough for [vendors] to see 15 guys sitting around in the food court eating food they brought in from outside."
Do these new owners have ANY business experience? Granted, it's tough on the vendors, but maybe that means they need to make their food better or cheaper. There are two parts to selling something, especially food: the first is to get the person there, the second is to get them to buy something. Having the mall's food court as a hangout for card and chess players accomplishes the first part FOR them; all they have to do now is make themselves more attractive to the chess players. Maybe have someone go around and sell drinks/snacks to the gamers or something. There are a million ways that they could make the mall chess and card friendly, and they chose the one option that will not only loose them potential customers, but give them a negative image as well. It's a MALL, by God. Having people hang out there is the best act for publicity and business that they can have.
In the words of Stewie: "What the deuce?"