Convenient Store Owner Sells Store Because It Became a “Veritable Casino”
A woman came in with $200 in her pocket to replace tires on her car. I happen to know she’s a single mother who can’t afford to be filling that wastebasket with losing Lottery cards. But by the time she left, she no longer had that $200 and I saw how she suffered.
There was another woman who used to come in every day, again a single mother whose son had serious problems. This was when we had $1 scratch tickets. She’d buy five, go over to that counter, scratch them, throw them away, then come back for five more.
Finally I told her, ‘Look, I cannot sell you any more.’ As soon as she walked out my husband asked, ‘What did you do that for? You know she’ll just buy them somewhere else.’ I told him, ‘I know, but at least it won’t be on my conscience.’
-Carolyn’s story appeared in the February 17, 2011 edition of the Boston Herald