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Vultures in Florida

12 - 28 -06

By Kimberly Adkins

Vultures! I hate them. The lowest of the lowest type of species. Too lazy to work for its food, it waits for its meal to die, then they fly around in circles, sniffing out the carcass and then move in for the free meal.

Vultures are much like real estate agents in our area (sorry, no offense to any Springer agents out there). We had our house on the market for a few months. As soon as it went on market, we were bombarded with junk mail from other real estate companies and individual agents wanting to sell us the house of our dreams from their listings. Sorry, but we are moving to get OUT of this area, not to stay in it.

Now, with our house temporarily off the market, we are being bombarded with junk mail from other real estate companies and agents wanting us to re-list with them. They all brag about the “services” they will provide for us that is sure to get our house sold. Funny, but their “services” are all the same. I don’t see anyone standing out in the crowd. One even LIED to us in their letter, stating they can sell our house because it is a seller’s market. Everyone down here knows that it is a BUYER’S market around here, especially after three entire new subdivisions went up in the last year on land that used to be woods and fields. As far as the rest of the county goes, I am sure there are other new neighborhoods as well. Thousands and thousands of new homes built in the last year in this county alone, with no buyers lined up to purchase all of them, and cutting into the market of buyers that might have been interested in our house.

Aside from the real estate agents who are flying around our house like vultures, there is another kind of vulture. Advertisements. Each week, Jack and I both get a piece of junk mail from Hernando Mitsubishi, trying to get us to buy a car from them. None of the mail comes with their name on the envelope. It is always disguised as some important account notification, or “official” government correspondence, or a “check” implying that we are getting the money instead of them trying to part us from our money. I have even called them to stop, but the junk mail piles up. In the last year, they probably killed several trees in junk mail they have sent to our address; try multiplying that by the rest of the county. After all of that, we still have never step foot on their lot and don’t plan to either.

The biggest vulture of all – Wal-Mart! I despise Wal-Mart. Quite unfortunately to the American society, Wal-Mart has almost become a necessary evil. I really try to stay out of that place because I hate how they treat their employees, how they treat the communities they are in, and most of all, how it makes me feel when I leave there. I can go into a Wal-Mart in a good mood, and leave with a Mrs. Hyde personality. They are too hectic, chaotic, and mentally and visually over-stimulating. Each time I go into one, demons I did not even know I had start to emerge, and I get these crazy desires to slug someone and curse out total strangers.

I really don’t need to shop at Wal-Mart. But, in our area, the nearest mall is an hour away. When we move to Virginia, the closest Wal-Mart to where we will be living is right next to the mall, so I will not need the convenience of Wal-Mart’s closeness to our home. Wal-Mart is the worst kind of vulture because of the way the will shamelessly sacrifice things like respect, loyalty, people-friendly environment for workers and shoppers, teamwork with the employees and community, all in the name of money. Everything they do is all about the dollars, not the people. They have cost a lot of Mom-and-Pop businesses, and some not-so-small businesses (like Kmart, etc.) their fair place in the market in every community. They are killing the competitions, and in effect, killing the communities. They are not very good at sharing. Check out www.wakeupwalmart.com for the low down on how low Wal-Mart goes in their treatment of people.

We are really looking forward to getting back to Virginia. Then we will not have to deal with real estate agents anymore, junk mail from Hernando Mitsubishi, and Wal-Mart. Until then I guess all I can do is say…………Calgon, take me away!

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