Urban Nation Entertainment

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I just had the pleasure of listening to a young black man at my doorstep telling me about how my purchasing over-priced magazine subscriptions will help him get out of poverty and into school. As a member of Urban Nation Entertainment, he tells me that he gets points and bonuses for selling magazines door-to-door.

He was a nice young man, professionally dressed and respectful. His magazine list was well worn and slightly tattered like he’s been on the road a while. He’s gone now and I’m $12.00 cash lighter but I’ve been wondering if anyone knows of these outfits.

I seem to recall reading about these companies that lure young people into traveling in groups to states far away from their homes, selling these magazine subscriptions door to door, and ultimately the kids never see any of the benefits of their hard work. The owner of the company takes the profits and the kids keep humping the streets.

I’ve googled but have only found people bitching about buying the magazines and never receiving them. Are there other companies than Urban Nation Entertainment? I’m more concerned that these kids are being used as modern-day Oliver Twists than if someone gave an inflated check to a door-to-door salesman and felt like they got scammed.

2

We had one yesterday afternoon but couldn’t understand what outfit he was working for, as our dog was trying to bark us all deaf. I wouldn’t have bought anyway because I also had some vague idea it was connected with a scam. I’m interested to hear if they’re legit.

3

Over the years I have had people come up to my door with basically the same thing. They hit all the houses or apartments in the area, then pile into a van and move on to the next neighborhood. I just tell them I am not interested. Sometimes they continue with their spiel for a while, but most just say “Thank You” and go on their way.

A couple of months ago, I young black man came knocking on my door. I live in a predominantly white area, so he stood out a bit in his black slacks and long-sleeved white shirt on a hot day. It is rare that anyone comes to my door since I live quite a ways from the street, you can’t see the house from the street, and he was walking, no car.

He introduces himself, shakes my hand, then pulls out a thick doubled-over stack of stapled pages and hands them towards me, all the while staring at my car. I know what he is about, so I don’t take the dirty crumpled pages from him. I figure if he wants me to read what he is selling instead of talking to me, he is a poor salesman.

He never takes his eyes off my car. When he realizes I am not taking the pages from him, he looks back at me and says something about the car, I don’t remember what exactly now. I have a 1965 and 1966 Mustang sitting a little further out in the driveway, but he is facinated by my dirty 1983 T-Bird beater.

He finally starts in with his speech about the magazines, travel trips, college tuition, save the youth of America, etc, and I politely say “No thanks. I’m not interested.”

He stops and looks at me and says “You’re not interested!”
Me: “That’s right.”
Him: (heavy sarcasm) “You’re not interested in helping the youth of America?”
Me: (a little annoyed) “Nope. Not interested.”

I turn around and start walking back to my door, and he says loudly “Redneck!”
I stop and look back at him and he is angry.
Him: “Should have known. A stupid redneck!”

At this point I ignore him, walk inside, lock the door behind me and look out my front window to see him walking away down the driveway. He turns around and looks back at the house, but continues walking away.

I guess “No thanks. I’m not interested” was not the remark he was hoping for.

4

[Peter Gibbons]What am I gonna do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?[/Peter Gibbons]

5

Most municipalities require vendors’ licenses. Ruby, if you are concerned if the salesperson is a victim of one of these scams, ask to see the license.

The newspaper where I used to work would not accept ads to hire these salespeople; they would put a local hotel phone number in the ad for applicants to call and “interview” young people in the hotel room, which was unsavory right there. The ads emphasize “travel” and “rock ‘n’ roll environment,” but not “sleeping in a van” and “getting left in a faraway town because you didn’t make your sales quota” or “getting picked up for a misdemeanor because you violated an ordinance about door-to-door sales.”