PDT 1/2 : Best place to panhandle

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

Starbucks first, the rest seem horrible.

[That Foreign Guy]

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I think you missed the most important and likely the most profitable panhandling spot of them all: by the church.

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Hell no. Religious people in general are much more likely to give to religious institutions / charity than directly to beggars.

Shopping district seems like the favourite to me.
Bar if you have skillz of some sort.

[centaurmyth]

i saw 2 guys killing it with a cardboard box of kittens in Times Square around the holiday season last year. just a box with 8 or so kittens and a box in front of it for the money. no hype, no active panhandling, just loads of tourists gawking and giving. the only reason i noticed the 2 guys were their ear-to-ear grins. they were silently keeping an eye on the money box about 2 rows back from the crowd that couldn't take their eyes off the kittens and wonder their plight... crowded foot path with non-intrusive gimmick ftw.

[bigbootch]

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Hell no. Religious people in general are much more likely to give to religious institutions / charity than directly to beggars.

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I happen to disagree with your opinion here, but even if it were true, that would still not preclude in front of a church as the best panhandling spot. Even if they are more likely to give to institutions than directly to beggars, it could still be the case that they give directly to beggars at a higher rate than non-religious people.

Anyway, surprisingly I haven't seen anyone mention the following so far: peer pressure. I think this is the single biggest factor, not whether they have change or not. What I mean is, panhandling at a spot that is likely to have groups of people walking by, where the people in this group have some incentive to make themselves look good. If even one person in this group gives to the beggar, the rest will give also instead of standing there looking like an [censored]. Even if none of them would have given to the beggar independently, they may now do so to try to look good.

Now, where might be the best place for this, I'm not sure. The first place that comes to mind is a higher-end restaurant, where people are more likely to be there on dates / business meetings / other situation where there is incentive to impress the others, versus like a Bennigan's where it's probably some 60 year old couple or whatever.

-bigbootch

[React1oN]

Centaurmyth that's a pretty cool observation.

In direct reference to this thread though, I think the top ones would have to be: Busy Street Corner, Starbuck's, Shopping District.

As other's have mentioned, Starbuck's is hurt by getting run-off etc; Shopping District hurt by everyone and their grandmother's using credit cards now, etc.

I think that out of El D's possible locations, busy intersection wins, assuming there is some light lasting a medium to long length, and I also think that a lower-middle to middle-class neighborhood is the best possible location for this, because the people are more understanding, and will likely "donate" more, as well as a lower chance they'd call the cops, etc.

In general though, I think Subway is probably the best as other's have mentioned.

[SlowHabit]

Any place that has lots of girls walking around. It's not that the girls will give beggars moneys [though some might], it's the pressure/ego of giving moneys to the beggars in front of the girls.

[A.P. Keaton]

I live and work in downtown Chicago and encounter panhandlers at least 10 times a day. At least for Chicago, I say the best location is a shopping district on the weekends. First, you have a lot of people passing you -- which is going to increase your chances of getting handouts. Next, because it is a weekend, you are going to have more suburbanites who are not accustomed to seeing homeless people and will be more sympathetic to their plight. Third, you have a relationship dynamic (i.e. guy with his girlfriend not wanting to look cheap) as opposed to a business district where people are in a hurry to get to or leave work and will generally ignore the panhandlers. I have observed that the same panhandlers who work the business district during the week with will move to Michigan Ave. to hit up the tourists on the weekends.

A unique angle also helps. The greatest beggar I ever saw was a woman with two small children. She would set up a little plastic table with chairs on the street corner for the kids. They would color or reads books and she would just stand there saying nothing. People were actually lined up 10 deep to give her money. I bet she made over 100k a year. There is also a group young heroin addicts who works Michigan Ave. They usually take turns and have a sign saying that they lost their wallet, that they are stranded and they are trying to get home to Seattle. Their star is a little white girl who curls up into a ball, holds a little kitten and crys her eyes out. I hate these kids and I would like to throw them into traffic.

Another observation, I observe that black people give money to panhandlers in a much higher proportion than white people. I have a soft spot for blind people. They are generally the only panhandlers I give change to/

[A.P. Keaton]

Also, the best location will change based on the time of day. The best bums move around the city all day long. At 5 pm, you want to be near the train station where everyone is heading to. At lunch, you want to be in an area where there are a lot of restaurants. At night, you want to catch that bus of tourists from Iowa who are lining up to see "Wicked." Oh, and you gotta know what sports teams are in town. Did the Cubs just beat the Giants? Hurry up and get to Wrigley Field. The bums who stake a claim at one corner and stay there are missing out on a lot of profit.

[Rootabager]

Bar is a great place. I work at a bar and a ton of bums walk by and ask for money. A lot more drunks than you think will give them a dollar. Bar is also great for getting cigs because you cant smoke inside in Lexington, KY so whenever there is 10 ppl smoking I would say 95% of the time they get a cig.

[Iconoclastic]

This thread really makes me want to go out there and extort some panhandlers. It sounds like they make so much money and would make great targets for gangs that want to make some extra cash. It's not like they can call for help from the police.