15thWardSTL.org

This Thursday, at 8:30 am, in room 208 of city hall, a Conditional Use Hearing will convene to begin making the decision on a Rent-A-Center going in at 3737 S. Grand.

This is an important opportunity for anyone who feels trepidation about businesses like Rent A Center (or anyone who for some reason supports them) gaining a greater foothold in our community. There will be an opportunity to speak if you are so interested. If this is your neighborhood, you are a relevant stakeholder and your opinion matters.

Businesses like Rent a Center do little to support healthy communities, IMHO. They prey on the poor and others with few options, offer a marginal product, and get people caught up in payment schemes in which they eventually pay far more for the merchandise than its actual market value.

From an article by Anna Schiffrin in the May/June 2005 issue of Mother Jones:

In the four-bedroom Brooklyn apartment Maria Motta shared with her three sons, her mother, her cousin, and a lodger, there was no place to sit.... Then in the fall of 2001, Motta discovered Rent-A-Center.... Here was the deal: For $600, Motta would buy a matching armchair and love seat, to be paid for over three months. Never mind that the contract she saw quoted the cash price as $1,350 and the price for paying by installment as $2,700. Those numbers wouldn’t apply to her, said the salesperson, since she was buying, not renting. She paid $300 on the spot and another $300 within 60 days.

But the story didn’t end there. Monthly bills continued to arrive, late fees stacked up, and “incomplete” payments were rejected. Rent-A-Center employees routinely called her at home, says Motta, and even came by in person to pressure her to pay. After two years, Motta had paid Rent-A-Center almost $2,000. “I was giving and giving and it was never done,” she recalled. “I told them to take their sofa.” The company would not comment on her case.

copy and paste this link into your browser to read the whole article:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/05/
paynow_paylater.html

Sorry for the lengthy block quote. I do not have time to get a good post out right now, in my own words, about why these places are bad news, and I really wanted to get the word out ASAP. Rent-a-Center is not something good for our community. It is important that word get out and opposition is clearly and unambiguously stated.

I had every intention of attending and testifying at the hearing, but I have prior appointment that I can not get out of. Please, whoever attends, get back to us and let us know how it goes.

And please turn out if at all possible this Thursday, Jan 31.