Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm just writing to a well known food chain, advising them of some shortcomings I am experiencing with their home delivery process.
Post Pandemic, I've realised just how much I utterly hated going "shopping" and I realised we are really invested now in home delivery!
(So much, that I'm actually attempting to get the process to work a bit better)
I wondered if it's just me, or is this a more universal Autism thing?
For those of you who don't like to post or vote, this is a very simple question, and you can possibly excercise a bit of power if you have a strong feeling about shopping.
We constitute about 1/50th of the population if I have my facts correct, (I may not when it comes to that number) so IF we turn out to be "all of one mind" it's worth "niche influencers" like myself (I KNOW companies, and even lawmakers, can be influenced by a well written complaint, as I've been doing it for years! I claim credit for killing a Kellogs ad campaign in the nineties with a particularly vitriolic communication to the right department and the part of U.K. drone law that lets your kids (and me!) fly a toy in your own back garden...
Complaining is like planting seeds, and waiting to see which ones sprout. For those who are lacking in funds and powerless it's a very cheap hobby, too.
You just have to do it creatively, and not "whine"...
So how do YOU feel about a trip to the shops?
With this thread about shopping fresh on my mind, I went to buy milk this evening from my local supermarket which closes at 9pm. I left the shop at 8pm and was immediately accosted by a beggar asking for change.
I hope you told them to "beggar off"
Sorry Out_Of_Step, I think that's one of the only two downvotes I've cast since joining this site.
In my opinion your attitude is a little small minded, and if I may say, somewhat inconsiderate.
I'll try and explain. Thee are essentially two sorts of beggar. A) Those in need, and B) those who are "taking advantage".
Type A beggars have my sympathy, they are out there holding out their hands because they can't see a better way to get their neds met. Their immediate needs might be for drugs, electricity for their flat, food, drink, but whatever they are, until they "make that money" they can't think or do anything else, it's a nasty form of slavery in my opinion, and my £20, will give them a brief time out, or a microscopic "holiday" from having to beg. Of course, I'm not often so "comfortable" I can give my money away, in fact it's been twenty years or so since I crossed the poverty line and entered "financial destitution", so usually I have to apologise, and say "I'm sorry mate, I'm only a step away from joining you" or somethng similar.
Type B beggars, get exposed fairly quickly, as no one likes them, so they are in no way as common as you might expect.
The only beggars I tell to "beggar off" are the ones begging me to buy stuff or embrace ideas that I don't need, on the TV set and pretty much everywhere else.
I've got a neighbour, a pensioner who used to take a long walk into the city and dish out some minor charity (coffee and cigarettes) very regularly. Eventually, after many years of doing this, some random eejit beat seven shades out of him as he was getting off the bus near his home.
The police are unsupportive and unhelpful, don't even try to understand peoples situations. I've seen them harassing the homeless and they were rough with me during my meltdown last year.
That's the best idea. One of the coffee shops in our town had a system where you could leave extra money and homeless people could have a coffee in the warm. I haven't been there since the pandemic though.
Shame.
I always give food to homeless ones; but no longer give them money, after a Panhandler fleeced me off €300 in Dublin; Easter Sunday 2009.
The police attitude has not changed. I constantly see the police community support officers harassing the homeless. It's almost their full time job.
You didn't offend me, a policeman did back about 50 years ago when I was thirteen on a school trip and a beggar was trying to get a few pence out of us well heeled grammar school types.
He drove the man off then turned to us and told us how we needed to avoid such people as "he had fleas".
I could only see someone even worse off than me, and I found our attitude to the poor as being uncaring and wrong, an attitude that has stayed with me, ever since.
And talking to them can be unexpectedly rewarding. One guy gave me some great urban survival tips, which if I had ended up going "on the lam" to avoid the "camps for the unvaccinated" (which they were talking about implementing last Chrismas, would have come in very handy. He was once a station master, but had still ended up homeless and on the street..
That's fine you csn down vote me, I don't mind and i apologise if i offended you . That's awful what happened with your neighbour. I very rarely ignore people begging outside a shop, even your type B. I don't give money but always say "sorry I have no change" or something to that effect. Some just want people to talk to in which case I briefly give them my time. We don't know people's stories of why they are in the situation they are in and I'm always very aware that I could quite easily be in their shoes but for the grace of God.