Very tragic and sounds like a portrait of a homeless guy. You lost me a bit on the connection between him being homeless and chain stores, but maybe that’s a politics/economics discussion.

This was about an old man in Missouri who worked down the street from a place I used to work. He looked like he could’ve been homeless if you threw some soot on him. I realize my description wasn’t completely clear in conveying the fact he was the clerk. I edited it slightly. and hope that it was an improvement. :)

I understood he was a clerk in the original text. I often feel the same charitable feelings when I hand a bum some change that I feel when I frequent someone who owns a small business. If that small business looks like it’s about to go under, I have a hard time not buying something. Good story, lady.