During my 2+ year tenure here at the coffee shop, the one thing I can count on is the same little group of door to door “salesmen” showing up in a beat up old car with out of state plates on it every few weeks. There’s usually three of them, and they all look like they’ve spent the better part of their lives sitting in mom’s basement playing things like D&D, Magic, and arguing over which Star Wars guy kicks more ass (for the record, I think Darth Vader kicks the most ass).
They walk the littered sidewalks of Cedar Avenue carrying duffle bags full of things like games, umbrellas, flashlights, and other crap most likely obtained in an abandoned parking lot via an unmarked semi trailer.
They have a leader. He looks like a young white trash version of John Goodman. When they unstuff themselves and their merchandise out of their dorkmobile, he points at buildings and tells each one which businesses to hit. They disperse, and at least one of them comes into the store every time. If I’m lucky, another one will come in unaware we’ve been hit already.
I stop them with a “NOT INTERESTED” the second they open the door and they leave. Sometimes they’ll try and hit up customers on their way in to the store.
Please, do not give money to people like this or even give them the time of day. If you do, it will only make things worse. You might as well put a pile of dog crap on your front door with a sign that says “FLIES WELCOME HERE” while you’re at it.
Supporting people like this is not a good thing. It keeps them coming back and from getting real jobs where they don’t dress up in their Wal Mart clearance rack business casual attire and spend their days annoying the shit out of people.
Either that or they continue the pattern of wearing bad clothes and annoying people by becoming car salesmen… or working for the IRS.