It Goes Without Saying

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

So we are now living in an apartment.  The apartment comes with many amenities: a community pool, a community workout room, a wrapping center (complete with paper, bows, gift bags, etc.), free movie rentals (selections change monthly), use of a pool table, use of 2 computers with high speed internet (during business hours) and to top it all off the community is behind some huge gates that you have to have a remote to in order to get in (which makes pizza delivery a little tricky).  I am sure I am forgetting some things but you get the idea, it is a pretty cool place to live.

I did notice though that on the front of the gate (the one you have to have a remote for) there is a sign that says, "No Solicitation."  Is this really necessary?  I would hope it is obvious to a would be solicitor that if you can't even get on the property, you might not be able to solicit.  Perhaps the sign is for tenants as they drive in to remind them not to solicit other occupants.  I know that I generally refuse to buy candy bars or other fund raising wares from anyone.  I do however offer to donate directly to the cause if they would only give me the correct person / business to make the check out to but they seldom follow up with that information.  I don't try to sell candy bars to my co-workers and I don't buy from them.  I figure this makes us even in the long run.

In general though I think the whole "No Solicitation" sign is not needed.  This should be a given rule.  I know of no one who wants to be solicited (ok, mind out of the gutter here readers).  This is also true of the "Do Not Call" list.  What a silly concept.  Does anyone like getting telemarketing calls?

I did get visited once by a foreign student trying to sell encyclopedias to help pay for his college.  I did have a No Solicitation sign on my front door but it was obvious that this was not one of the words in the English language that he understood.  I invited him in, gave him a glass of water and kindly explained what the sign meant so he could avoid the other houses in the neighborhood that also had signs like mine.  He was very thankful and understanding.

I think maybe I wouldn't mind being solicited by a No Solicitation sign salesman.  Now that would be niche market since by design there would be no repeat business.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon