Solicited By Strange People in Home Depot

I do agree with you to a point... I feel that HD should be a little
more concerned about solicitors in the stores.

BUT, you completely lost me when you started ranting about Illegal
aliens. However you feel about immigration laws has nothing to do with
solicitors in the stores. After all, wouldn't you be annoyed if I, a
white woman in her 20s, came up to you and offered to help load your
crap into your car or home repeatedly? These parts of the letter makes
you come off as a bigot.

What do you expect HD to do (besides ban solicitors in general) about
illegal immigration? Ask everyone for their Green cards that enter the
store? It isnt HD's responsibility to regulate immigration.

I want to make one thing clear to all here. Yes the op come across as
harse. A bigot not in my opinion but move beyond that. The only
people that should approach you in Home Depot or any other store for
that matter should be employees offering assistance. It is illegal to
solicite in the majority of businesses in America and that is to
protect the store and the customer. If a business does not enforce
this rule they are condoning the behavior and in the long run will
loose business as there customers will quite coming when the problem
escalates. Yes immigrants founded this country but we are well beyond
that phase now and have laws that these people are violating. To call
them immigrants at all is a slap in the face of all that go through
the process legally. Ask a LEGAL immigrant sometime and see how
offended it makes them and rightly so. There are jobs that can be had
all over the country and you do not have to stalk customers to get
them.

Wow...just...wow.

This has to be the most ignorant letter I've ever seen. So there are
people offering to do odd jobs. At least they are trying to work for
the money. Your little racist rant is the worst thing I've ever read.


Moe, you are "The Man", and I don't mean that in a good way.

"Arrest anyone soliciting customers on HD property"

"Post that any Illegal alien found on HD property will be detained and
turned over to the authorities."

"Offer a reward to anyone assisting in the arrest and deportation of
any illegal alien found on HD property."

What about taking them out back and hanging them or putting them
before a firing squad at dawn? Would that appease you?

The saddest part is that you are completely oblivious to the fact that
immigrants and illegals aren't the problem here; Ignorant,
narrow-minded, outdated ways of thinking are.

This country was FOUNDED by immigrants. Your ANCESTORS were
immigrants to this country. So where do YOU get off deciding that YOU
are an acceptable immigrant and they are not? You can't say, "I don't
deny anyone the right to make a living" and then say they should be
rounded up, arrested and deported.

Don't like being hit up for work in Home Depot - DON'T GO THERE.

I am sure I spelled his name wrng, but he does a whole bit on "home
depot training", saying there are fake home depot stores and shelter
areas across from the fake stores in Mexico that teach people about to
cross the border how to approach american citizens at HD and ask for
work.

It's really funny, but sad. We need to fix the border issues ina way
that is win-win for all.

Did you even bother to bring this to the attention of a member of
management at the store? If you do (did) and they don't (didn't) do a
thing then I can understand your complaint. The police should be
contacted about this problem by HD. If the police wants to follow up
on the illegal alien thing then whatever. But the important thing is
that customers should not be harrassed by anyone -- fellow citizen, a
legal or an illegal. This alien aspect of your letter just detracted
from your letter.

Any person other than a US citizen, US permanent or temporary legal
resident alien, or person in US custody.

INS won't help you there.

Maybe they were looking for directions to the immigration office.
Personally, I think it should be a felony for bigots to try and use
legalese.

Try shopping at HD in Miami. Where is the INS??? If they are having
a hard time rounding up illegals, they should stop by HD everyday.

It looks like South America there!!!

my son is a patient at st. jude's children's research hospital in
memphis. we return on a regular basis from our home in missouri for
doctor visits and such. st. jude's patients and their families are
housed for short stays at the memphis grizzlies house. about a block
away is a convenience store. about three blocks away is another
convenience store. i go to the one that's further away because the
closer one is overrun with homeless people begging for money. do i
feel badly for them? yes. am i going to give them money? no. i
simply go to the convenience store further away. is it sticking my
head in the sand? possibly. if you really feel that these people are
illegals, you can call INS. i know from personal experience that they
will investigate. this happened at rental property i lived at a few
years ago. an entire group of people were found living in a one
bedroom apartment and deported.

I would have kindly declined the offer and headed straight to the
special services counter and asked to speak with a manager.

It seems highly unlikely a HD would condone this behavior, but
speaking with a manager would have made it more clear what their
stance is. Then you could have taken it up to this level. I think
you skipped a step.

And whether or not illegal aliens were involved is irrelevant. This
is simply inappropriate solicitation and it should not be tolerated by
management.

"complicancy" and "niave"? There is a vast wealth of information
available on the web - use it. Educate yourself.

Not niave! Just so you know! Most foreign nationals probably know
how to spell that word by the way!

I don't blame you for your observations about being solicited anywhere
in a place of business other than the employees who work there and
provide that service, but it does come off as being racist. Did you
consider that before you composed your letter?

I'm all for helping others. It should be the most natural part of
life that we should joyously do, but we don't. That's sad. Maybe
next time since this seems to happen to you a lot is possibly do some
research as to where would be the most appropriate place for them to
solicit, or an agency that helps people like them in their current
situation and with that you're solving and correcting two problems.

It's something to consider.

What did the manager say when you approached him/her?

so instead, the day laborers go across the highway to Lowes where it's
more convenient and right on the highway.

Gosh sakes man, if they WERE'NT working, you'd complain that your
taxes pay their welfare, but they are actually trying to EARN
money...mind your own business and let HD take care of it...

also, with the reward for turning in the illegals, what are you
planning to do? stake out a spot in the store and reap the rewards of
turning them in?

Unfortunately, this does occur in retail settings. I have people at my
store that beg for money in the parking lot, play a guitar for tips,
etc etc etc.

I know this because customer's come up to my service center of my
workplace and TELL ME about it. I go out there and confront them and
tell them to leave. They are on private property and are harrassing
customers so they can be asked to leave.


BTW, leave out the racist comments, it just shows how small your brain
is.


Good Day

Question; how can you see deep pockets unless they're turned out,
therefore making them useless and obviously empty?

Ah, yet another racist trying to mask his resentment as an immigration
issue.

If people are soliciting you in HD, complain to the manager. Doesn't
matter if their Mexican, American, or Martian. If you lack the
ability to do this, you shouldn't be complaining.

Instead, you complain about, you know, those kinds of people. You
know they're illegal, right? Don't be naive, right? They're
everywhere! Right?

In a way, I wish we did deport all the illegals. Then people like you
could complain about the price of oranges.

Thanks Moe! The only advice I can give you is, don't go to HD alone.
There's safety in numbers. You're a minority in the United States, get
used to it.

Wow, the whole first paragraph is one big insult to Home Depot. And
you want them to help youafter that?

You can't have been too upset since you didn't ask for a manager.

Or are you such "nicely dressed, white male with deep pockets" that it
was beneath you to do so?

Oh, brother.....

Do you realize that you come across as completely lacking of
credibility? Re-read your letter and then be embarassed. You should
be.

OMG! Does it EVER STOP!!!!!

Moe has the perfect recipe for taking a totally valid issue (that he's
being bothered by people in HD) and making most people hate you for
saying it (by demanding that HD arrest people and have them
deported).

If you feel strongly on immigration issues, write to your Senator or
Representative. Vote to raise taxes to fund a larger INS (or whatever
they call themselves these day).

But don't lay your concerns (valid or not) about immigration on HD.

What you should do is contact the manager when you are approached.
Point out the individual soliciting you ask have the manager ask the
person to leave. If they don't, then you are free to never return to
that HD again.

As an aside... I often use Washington Dulles International Airport.
They have strict policies against any cab company from operating from
the airport, except one. Yet, I'm often approached by cab drivers,
limo drivers, and other offering me rides.

The airport spends money on having staff specifically to combat this,
including airport police. They have signs posted and they make
announcements.

With the kind of money Dulles spends on this, you'd think that no one
would solicit.

Wrong.

So, even with patrols, it's pretty easy for people to solicit.

Wow, talk about an overreaction!!

- Arrest (anyone soliciting customers...)
- Turn over to authorities (any illegal alien)
- Offer a reward (to anyone assisting in the arrest and deportation of
any illegal alien).

Like others have stated, you do not know the legal status of these
people. Furthermore, whether they are legal or not is not relevant
anyway. If someone solicits you for services, how hard is it to say
"no" and walk away? If they continue after you saying "no", then
that's a different story.

There seems to be a rather disturbing trend in this country towards
ANYONE who speaks with broken english, or with simply an accent.
While I do believe that people wishing to enter this country should do
it legally, like all of our ancestors did, there seems to be a lot of
hatred and assumptions going on towards those who aren't clearly
American-born. Clearly, there are a lot of assumptions in your
letter, Moe.

Moe G.,

Too bad you have such a low opinion of yourself...
"seeing me as some nicely dressed, white male with deep pockets." He
He He

In the mean time if you are approached by these types again, man up
and let them know that you are not going to take it anymore.

It would appear that for some reason they single you out.

Of course HD should be aware of this and maybe because of your letter
they will. Even faster, infact, if you would have sought out the
manager and pointed it out as it occured.

Stop back and let us know when they get back to you.

BillR.

What proof do you have that these are illegal aliens? None
whatsoever! Home Depot has no legal right to detain anyone. Queens is
a very ethnically diverse county and there are many immigrants both
legal and illegal. Unless they are wearing signs, you cannot tell
which is which.

You do have a valid complaint about the solicitation. Have you
mentioned this to a manager? That should be your first step.

Unless these people are permitted to be on HD property then there is
nothing you can do except go to Lowe's or another such store.

If HD is not permitting these people to solicite on their grounds then
need to post signs stating so and warning that these people will be
arrested for soliciting on private property and without permission.
Then they can call the police to have them removed from their
property.

A second way is to have security posted on the premises patroling the
parking lots. While it may cost them a few more dollars a month to do
this, its going to cost them much more if people are not going to shop
there because of harrassment.

So if white, American-born men were bugging you with the same offers,
you'd be less worried? You do not know the legal status of the men in
question.

You have a valid complaint (an urgent one, in my opinion) and the
weird race/nationalist stuff just detracts from that complaint.

I think you should speak with the manager of this Home Depot AND you
should contact the police department to let them know this is going
on. At least that way, if someone else also complains to the cops,
maybe they'll do something.

I find it hard to believe the employees don't know this is going on.
If they don't feel comfortable approaching these men and telling them
to leave the store and Home Depot property, they need to get their
manager to do it, or call the cops.

I don't go shopping and expect to put up with being harassed in the
stores in which I'm shopping.