DOLLAR STORES ON MAIN - WHEW!

 

It's been a while since I cleaned around the Dollar Stores on Main.  By law, businesses are required to keep their properties clean, and most do.  But the Dollar Stores do not.  For some reason, they get away with not cleaning up the trash in their parking lot.  If I worked at a Dollar Store, I think I would LOVE going outside in the sunshine for a few minutes, and a few minutes is all it takes if it's cleaned up every day.

But they don't.  So I wait until I can't stand it any longer, and I pick up the trash so my neighborhood doesn't look like a dump.

I picked up 885 pieces of trash at the Dollar Store at Main & Wilbeth in one hour.  I found two tires.  One was being used as a trash can, but not really, because there's no bottom.  

I hauled the tires to the street so Keep Akron Beautiful can pick them up tomorrow.

Then I went to the other Dollar Store down the street at Main & Mapledale.  It was really bad.

These little bushes act as a magnet for trash when the wind is blowing.

It looks so nice when all the trash is pulled out.

 

After that, I went to the other side of the dumpster, and cleaned all this up.  Ick!

A 24-year old man watched me for a while, and finally, he got out of his car and asked me, "Do you work here?  Or are you doing this out of the goodness of your heart?"  I told him it was the second one.

He told me he recently moved to Akron from Canton, and he wasn't sure that was a good decision.  I told him to get out and pick up some trash on his street, and his whole outlook will change.

He looked up my blog, and said he was going to go home and tell his girlfriend he met me.  That was super fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Right after that guy left, another man walked by, and he said, "If I had a trash picker, I would help you!"  I was going to say, "Wait a minute, I have an extra one in my car . . . "  But he was long gone.

I get the most satisfaction out of cleaning areas that really need it.  I'm never disappointed with the Dollar Stores.  Do you think they really don't care?  Or they don't have employees to pick up their parking lot?  Or maybe the garbage gives people the idea that their stuff is cheap?

When I got to the front of the store, I saw the manager outside on a smoke break.  I pushed a cart back into the store.  She watched me.  Then she said, "Thank you so much for what you're doing.  You should be recognized."  I told her I have been recognized, but there's still a lot to do.

 

The Dollar Stores all have great big dumpsters in their parking lots.  

There's no reason for trash to be all over the parking lot . . . except for the fact that nobody wants to go near the garbage surrounding the dumpster!  

Can you believe this?  Ick!  Ick!  Ick!

I closed the gates.  It seemed almost ridiculous to pick up the trash in the parking lot, and then see that nasty mess.

I picked up 1,432 pieces of trash around this Dollar Store in just one hour. 

If one person can do what I'm doing, imagine what we could do together!