There was a sign on the door demanding that people leave their knapsacks at door making a…read moreconvenience store inconvenient for a person who has a knapsack and walks or bikes. Pretty unnecessary and stigmatizing considering how much surveillance equipment this store seems to have. It would be a little different if they asked you to leave the knapsack at the counter and weren't so rude about it and seem to look at you as if you were an undesirable that they would not want in their backyard. If their backyard is anything like the condition of the laundromat, at times, such an assumption is super prejudicial, in my opinion. I went into the laundromat at around 7:20, and even though the 'hours' sign said it open at 7:00 AM, I had to ask the man working in the general store if they could open the laundromat up cause it says it opens at 7:00 A.M. and he said that he was waiting for his boss and the laundromat wasn't clean, and I said well I need to use it and the reason why I got here so early was because it says it is open at 7:00 AM, so he did open it up for me. Then a few days later I saw someone actually cleaning the laundromat around 9:15, and I asked if the laundromat was really open at 7:00 AM, and she she said that it has to be cause it says it is open on the door, so I said that it wasn't open one day and I had to ask, more like beg, for them to open it. And she said if you have a problem talk to the manager. Right. Walk into a store with a knapsack or leave it at the door so all your groceries or clothes or whatever gets stolen.
Now there is a new sign that says knapsacks aren't allowed in the store and to leave them at the door, but this sign is harder to see since it doesn't stick out so much and is professionally done.
To make the matter more horrible for people who have a nice knapsack that could get stolen by someone who seems to be just standing around and watching, they have the only laundromat in town open after day shift working hours, so if you don't have a car and use a knapsack to transport your dirty clothes, you also have to worry about how you are going to go to the bathroom while leaving your expensive knapsack at the door since the middle door to the public bathroom is locked and you have to walk through their store to access the hall.
I think some stores in this town have sort of a 'tourist trap mentality' and don't seem to care about how they treat people or consider people with knapsacks as valued customers even though many who don't waste money on gas have more disposable income, which doesn't mean that anyone can afford to get their knapsack with all their clothes freshly washed in their laundromat stolen while going to the bathroom.
Sometimes the laundromat is filthy and many of the machine are not in working order. One dryer appeared to have burnt some of my clothes but some of the dryers are ok. Since it is the only laundromat in this town which is open after day shift working hours, you don't have much choice. Sometimes people are just hanging out in the laundromat who aren't doing their laundry and once there was a really big guy drinking alcohol sitting on the counter, though a staff member did finally come in and ask him to leave. They seem to have surveillance equipment everywhere. I have stopped going into that store and I buy something at A&W so I can use their bathroom while doing laundry and I get my change at the bank. Totally inconvenient and takes up time and costs more money but avoids a conflict which a person may regret for the rest of their life.
All these little 'issues' which tend to target a person with a knapsack slow down the whole process of what you are trying to do, and people who have never been exposed to such 'service', it could be quite a culture shock.
[Gray suggests the fewer number of young people in Comox is one reason why crime is down.]
http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/114762739.html
Is there a public policy to run our young people out of town by making it unpleasant to live here? Isn't age discrimination illegal? Or do people just cherry pick what laws to follow?
[Matt Brown, regional coroner for Vancouver Island, reviewed the files of the five deaths and consulted with the investigating coroners in a search for common factors that might potentially have caused the teenagers to take their own lives.
However, Brown found that few links could be established, other than the obvious one of geography and shared schools. Four of the teens attended Highland Secondary School in Comox and one attended G.P. Vanier Secondary in Courtenay.] http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/133207673.html
Well Duh! If abusing discretionary power is not about bullying, then how convenient.
It can be very intimidating in there. You ask for a receipt before they put the item in, because if you don't in some places, they don't give you a receipt, and most places will say no problem, but there one or two will say something snarky, Same with getting change.
