Panhandling at Costco

Its not uncommon these days to see panhandlers at various shopping malls, at street corners and entrances to freeways, anyplace drivers need to slow down or stop. The appearance of ever larger numbers of people begging on our streets is a reminder of the troubled times we live in, and my heart goes out to anyone forced to these measures to survive. Mostly I see single men, young and old, more so than women, and, mostly always, they are Caucasian and Black, at least the ones I have seen here in Bakersfield, and California in general. What I have never seen are Hispanic panhandlers. Why is that? I even googled to see if i could find an answer and found one article basically describing it as being a cultural issue, Hispanics having very conservative values, and would consider it too shameful to beg, but I imagine one will do whatever one has to in order to eat if it comes to that. So it came as shock to see a young Hispanic family standing at one of the entrances/exits of a local Costco Store when I pulled into the lot the other day. The man and woman were probably mid 30's and each held a small child, two little girls maybe 4 and 6 yrs of age, along with a sign asking for money.

I observed them across the lot as I walked from and back to my car, and as customers approached this particular exit, slowing and stopping before pulling into traffic, the young man (husband/father?)would approach the vehicles passenger side window with his cardboard sign (I don’t know what was written on it, no doubt something about needing money?) and look in at the driver. Either he was being (I felt)overly aggressive (desperate times = desperate measures)in his approach or the driver had motioned him over, it was hard to tell from where I stood. I was not unsympathetic to their plight, but something about the choice of location (I have never seen panhandlers at a Costco, like ever) and the presence of the two little girls in their arms seemed contrived, as if they were "props", that bothered me and I was suspect of their real situation. I suppose it really doesn't matter, clearly it was what they felt they needed to do.

I didn’t give the couple any money that morning, the exit they stood at was not the direction I was going in and besides, all I had was some loose change, having used a debit card in the store. And again, somehow I felt this couple had this well thought out, too well thought out perhaps, and the 'guilting' shoppers into handing over money, by having the two small children in tow didn't sit well with me. I sensed a scam more than a need. However, still, as I drove away, I couldn't help but think "There, but for the grace of God, go I."