Street Entepreneurs

I've noted in a number of posts here in this blog the hard-working men and women of South Philly who made their living doing everything from running the local candy store to collecting rags from a horse-drawn cart. All of us know folks who made their money honestly and worked their entire lives without complaint. At least I never heard them whine. They earned their living and did it without fail, day after day.

But on the street, there are always "entepreneurs" who strive to make a buck however they can. As you read this, you may be thinking that I'm referring to the local street pharmacists who stand on corners or make deliveries to the neighborhood junkies to keep them from going into withdrawal. They're out there along with a host of people who need to learn what working for a living truly is like.

A number of years ago, I met a certain salesman on Oregon Avenue, trying to sell me something I got a day later for free. This guy failed to sell me his product the minute he opened his mouth. A good salesman should know his customers. For some odd reason, this guy thinks my name is "Mazucca" and calls out to me, asking, "Hey Mazucca, you use Fusion razors? I got a load if you need them." I've had a number of guys on the street try to sell me everything from unbreakable drinking glasses (well, he said so, but wouldn't bang the mouth of the glass against his tailgate when I asked), pot, paper-thin shirts, whatever. But the first-ever time I found a neighborhood razor salesman.

Anyhow, the very next day, by way of the US Postal Service, what did I get in the mail? Yeah, you got it. A free Gillette Fusion razor. Pretty nice razor too, it has five blades to make sure I get all the stubble. A plug for Gillette, I didn't nick myself at all when shaving with the Fusion, so you got my vote for the razor of the year. That was then. Gilette lost my endorsement when they started the toxic masculinity commercials. I now shave with an electric razor made by a Scandanavian company that probably has them manufactured in China, paying workers pennies a day. 

Getting back to these "salesmen": I met them on a Wednesday, got my freebie on Thursday, and on Friday, my brother too got one in the mail. Maybe every male in the tri-state area males did. Or at least should have. So where did this guy get his load of Fusions? Maybe stole a load from the local post office or knew someone there who swiped them. Maybe they fell off the truck and landed at his feet, similar to the late Joey Coyle and his bags of cash. Who knows? But somewhere in South Philly, some knucklehead bought a Fusion or two at a deep discount, only to get one free the following day. Whatever happened to honest salesmen?


AND YOU MAY REMEMBER...

   ...The guys who used to try to sell you a VCR (or computer, or TV), but wouldn't allow you to open the box. "Bad for business, selling products in open cartons" they'd tell you. If you were foolish enough to buy them, I hope you enjoyed your carton of bricks. I've heard of a few guys who paid a hundred or so for them. My mom told me a few of her co-workers at the now-gone Holiday Inn at 10th & Packer were taken by this scam. They thought that she was a fool for not buying at a steep discount. That was until they opened the boxes and the blood drained from their faces.

My "favorite" scam was the guy who approached me while I was working in Center City in the early 90s during the clean-up after the Penn Mutual fire. He said he had a camcorder to sell. I asked to see it, expecting to find anything but electronics. "Can't open the box man" he told me. Said it was an 8mm VHS camera. "Which one?" I asked, "8mm or VHS?" "Yeah", that's the one" was his answer. He said he had to unload them quickly, the School District needed to clear their inventory and needed the cash. I could believe the school board was strapped for bucks, but since when does the Board of Education need to move inventory using street vendors? He got no sale from me that day.