Currently at my job I am inspecting filling stations, which
means that I am conducting a fire inspection and an environmental inspection of
the premises. I can honestly say that I
never planned, ever, in my life to be doing this- who says when they grow up
that they want to spend time in rough neighborhoods looking at gas stations?
This is a relatively dangerous part of my job. It also puts me in a bad mood every day. Right now I am assigned to the
north/northwest side of Milwaukee,
which has a real gang/drug problem, as well as a high truancy rate. And all of the unsavory characters that
participate in these activities seem to hang out at gas stations. I go early, mind my business, watch my back,
and get out as soon as possible. The
earlier in the day that I can get into these neighborhoods, the better- the
drunks, druggies and troublemakers tend to be late sleepers. But anyways… back to what I wanted to talk
about.
As a result, I spend a lot of time locked in the little
glass enclosures with the cashier, explaining the corrections that they need to
make in order to be in compliance with the regulations. Our discussion is always permutated by the
customers making their purchases. Here’s
where my first life lesson begins- if you want to know why you pay so much for
health insurance, spend a half hour in a gas station in a low income
neighborhood and observe what the people purchase.
I am absolutely amazed at the amount of crap people put into
their bodies. Here is a typical
purchase: 3 bags of chips, 2 packs of
muffins, cupcakes, etc, a couple of sodas, a black and mild (little cigar-type
thing) or pack of cigarettes, and a flavored blunt wrap (to roll a tobacco
“blunt”-yeah right). They can get all of
this for about $5.00, and it’s evident that this is their diet for the
day. It’s sickening. I can’t help but wonder how many of these
people have health insurance. If they
don’t, you can be sure you and I are subsidizing their bad habits.
My second life lesson is just a general observation about
people and their behavior. The gas
station workers commonly complain to me about the behavior of their
patrons. They are verbally abused by
people daily, their property is vandalized weekly if not daily, kids overwhelm
the stores and shoplift all the time, and all the owners can share stories of
when they were robbed, beaten, and almost everyone knows someone who was killed
while working at a station in the city.
I feel sorry for these property owners on some level, yet I
can’t help but wonder if they don’t bring it on themselves. Is it worth the danger and trouble these
station owners face just to make money pennies at a time selling candy and
chips? I can only assume that they knew
the nature of the neighborhood before they opened their store- why choose that
location? And why do many of these
stations sell products that encourage troublemakers to patronize their
store? Blunt wraps, chore boys, little
glass tubes, and probably other drug paraphernalia that I’m not even aware of-
why even sell it? And in case you were
wondering, almost every gas station on the north side sells pornographic movies
and magazines- who would have imagined?
Is the money worth it? The
answer, obviously, is yes. I can only
assume that the owners are willing to deal with the trouble, and have chosen to
sell the products that their customers want.
I wonder what would happen if they stopped selling the junk- all of
it. Would another business fill the
void? Probably. Would the problems go away? Probably not.
All of this makes me so glad to return home to happy little
Bay View at the end of the day.
