City streets and alleys v. Parking Lots

(It took me a good month before I decided I needed to start a litter blog.  The first four posts are delayed recaps.)

Once the snow melted and I could garden again, litter cleaning had to be confined to days that I was not working for my customers, working 3 days per week for customers and two for the public. The days are flexible, allowing me to work on litter when a customer bows out for the day and work on that one's place on a "litter" day.

I worked around the downtown one day, mostly sticking to 6th Street, but getting lured into the landscaped alleys between G and H by litter that grew thicker the further one got from the street.  Hedged pyrocanthas along the walls make handy places for people to smoke out of the wind.  A back door area further out of sight and wind was full of larger litter, including discarded clothes hangers.  My compulsion drew me in, but the lack of people to see my tunic took me back to the street, eventually.

I decided to see how things went in Fred Meyer's parking lot, where there are a lot of shoppers.  But cars in parking lots block the view of the vest, so the location is not as visible as one might think.  Fred Meyer actually seems to work on keeping their lot clean as well.  But they stop at the landscaping behind Abbys' Pizza, a no-man's land full of butts and some party's confetti.  I previously did the downtown Safeway parking lot, not so big, where people can see me better.  I got into the habit of picking up litter at various stores while waiting on a household member who was shopping.

A friend asked me to breakfast at a downtown restaurant, and I was scheduled to pick up litter afterward, so I started in their back parking lot and worked up their alley to the street, around that part of the block and back to finish the parking lot.  One of the owners came out early on as I was working and said, "Bless you!  I pick up every day, but there's so much!"  She offered me a hot drink.

Contrast that with the reaction at Walmart a few days ago, where I was picking up a little, while waiting on a friend.  A manager who was sitting in her car saw me and asked me to stop working there.  They have people who come in every two weeks to clean the lot, she said.  I pointed out that is not sufficient; the litter in their lot drives me crazy, and has ever since they opened.  She said that they have so much volume that they can't keep up.  I pointed out that their great volume means that they can hire enough people to keep up. She said to call corporate headquarters, where an operator would type everything I had to say.   

I wrote to them in the evening, pointing out that Burger King and McDonalds pick up their lots several times a day.  I got a call the next morning from headquarters.  They confirmed the every-other-week cleanup, and said that, in addition, they pick up as needed.  I think I made it clear that this store does not pick up as needed; I have never seen anyone doing it.  They seemed to be cleaner, with fresher litter, yesterday.  But they should have a person picking up that lot every hour the store is opened, because that is what it would take to keep that lot clean, with the volume they sell and the size of that lot.

But that convinced me to stop doing store parking lots.  I don't want to embarrass any store but Walmart. There are plenty of more public places that need the work and have no one but the public responsible for them.