Mom and Pop Pollster--A little history
We own a Mom and Pop Bath store in Northern California. Located in the heart of wine country, we have customers from all over the world and of course a lot of local Californians as well. Over the years we have chosen to learn more about our customers and consistently ask: Where are you from? First time to wine country? Where are you staying? Where did you eat? You know, the type of chatter that makes retail more enjoyable. For a few years now, our interest in politics consumes most of our energy however it is important in our store to be non-partisan. We for sure are selling lots of soap and candles to Republicans as well as Demos and others. But we have to make a living and not get in arguments with our customers! Recently I heard a reporter recounting an incident where he was buying TIME Magazine and the 20 something white American clerk looked at the picture of Kerry and Edwards on the cover with the headline "The Contenders". She looked at the reporter and asked: "What are they contending for?" My hair stood straight up and it became clear to me that the youth of the country must get involved in the process. Afterall, it is these same kids that are going to be making decisions that affect my life as I get older. I mulled it over for a few days and realized that we have a lot of kids come to our store. After a discussion with Pop Pollster, we decided to create a questionaire for kids 12 - 18 years old. We wanted to know what they know and if they have an interest at all in politics. Afterall the Heritage Foundation is pumping millions of Republican dollars into our colleges and universities trying to swing the vote of that age group. So our questionaire was born and we offered the kids free bath salts if they would fill it out. That became no problem. Kids love to participate in things and probably would have done so without the bath salts. The result was astounding. We asked the basic questions: Who is president? Who is Vice President? What party affiliation? Who is running against them for those two offices? Do you know your parents political affiliation? Do you go to public or private school? You know--the basics. There were a few kids that knew everything. But the majority knew very little. We had kids answer the president, vice president question with George Bush and Al Gore. We had kids that had no clue who was running against them. So my favorite story was about the 14 year old kid that was filling out the form. I know her and her Mom who was in the store shopping. I noticed her going to her Mom to answer one of the questions and said "no, you need to do this. Don't worry it is not right or wrong or good or bad, just do the best you can". I then saw her mother (40's) go to another customer (older lady--60's) They were all looking really puzzled with a "no clue" look on their face. I'm wondering what could these three women from 3 very different generations not know on this simple little questionaire. Finally the mother came to me and said "Who is the vice-president? none of us knows". My jaw hit the cash register. Ok so the 14 year old didn't know. Many of them did not know but the other two women?? How can that be? Here is a man who has single handedly dealt our country a horrible blow in several areas not to mention his charge to war. And they don't even know who he is! ARRRGGHH. Tomorrow I'll continue the saga of the next poll we created but for now--gotta go sell some soap!
Stuart
8:49:14 AM 
|
|
