THE SPRINGS ECHO

There have been fewer, new places in this city, specifically in the south Nevada area, that deserve more comment than this one. They came to our neighborhood four or five years ago. They were the new, best place to shop for everything. Then, time and “south Nevada’s personality” wore on this store. They grew, and they grew, and they're still growing, but things are changing in some important ways. This company store in my neighborhood is no longer a 24-hour store. From what I know, they are the only company store in Colorado Springs that is no longer operating around the clock.

 

From my understanding, they made this change believing they were in the worst, crime-ridden area of town because of us. Yes, because of us, we, the homeless! Truth be known, they don't know us at all, or they wouldn't treat us like we were beneath them or an eyesore for their billion-dollar company. There are many of us who have concerns about this store, but I'll only point out mine. Their bathrooms are only open or available at the whim of whoever has control of the keys at the time, and I see a lot of employees with no customer service skills but plenty of power and control issues. If you're not a customer spending money in their store, forget about restroom convenience.

 

It’s hard to believe a company that has grown faster than Walmart in our city is allowed to treat us this way. Walmart, on the other hand, always accommodates the public, customer or not, homeless, or not. Thank you for that.

 

This Nevada store also supplies free air, but on occasions they will approach people who are outside trying to intimidate us, to move us along. I assume they do this because we may offend their customer’s sensibility which may cause them not to spend money there. I guess they don’t think we will spend money there. It both angers and saddens me the store managers aren't compassionate enough to understand that we are human beings with legitimate commercial needs and money to spend.

 

I have heard rumors that they have plans to kick all homeless folks out of the store and off the property. So, I implore you. Have some respect for your neighborhood or close and go somewhere else. We were here before you came to our neighborhood, and if anyone messed up our neighborhood, it was you.

 

Please do better.

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