Heneghan’s Dunwoody Blog: Solicitation in Dunwoody - changes need to be made.

Heneghan’s Dunwoody Blog: Solicitation in Dunwoody - changes need to be made.

I've seen a lot of these emails floating around about how random people "claiming" to be selling door-to-door are scoping out potential targets for burglary.

I've had my own encounters. Like the well-dressed young gentleman claiming to be soliciting for a youth organization - but he doesn't have any sales materials with him. Or the young lady claiming to be from Georgia Perimeter College soliticing for another alleged charity. At 10 PM. Again, with no sales materials but says "[she] can go get it."

Then you have your solicitors who go through the permiting process and show said permit on request, but they don't know where to paint the line between making an assertive sales pitch and being an intrusive PITA.

The only solicitors I purchase from are the ones already exempted in the current ordinance: Girl Scouts (I need my Samoas, dammit!) school kids selling wrapping paper, Boy Scouts selling popcorn, and the like. Otherwise, I bring up my defensive posture backed by a full-on attitude problem that makes me look like I'm more trouble than I'm worth. That way if a "solicitor" does have bad intentions, they'll move on down the road.

This is why I think a community marketplace (see post further down) would be an asset; not-for-profits and others who would consider selling door-to-door would have a place to set up shop and see customers without risking putting off homeowners who would feel threatened by this type of action at their door.