Tell us a little about where you came from.
Shawna – “I came from Nebraska in a small town. And I’ve lived in different places. I’ve moved around. I’ve been in Nashville since 2015. I moved back to Nebraska in 2020 and just came back down here last year.”
Jim – “Born and raised in Washington State. Traced my roots back here to Nashville, and decided to come out in 2011.”
Do y’all like it down here so far?
Jim – No … There’s not a livable wage, and people say there’s jobs but no one wants to flipping hire anyone. There’s no affordable housing. The city is more concerned about the tourists’ money than they are about anything.
What brought you to The Contributor and made you want to stay at The Contributor for this long?
Shawna – I stated in 2016 when I found out about it from another vendor while I was walking downtown with my family. I decided to sign up, and I’ve been with it ever since.
Jim – I signed up originally because I needed income.
Tell me about your interactions with customers.
Shawna – Since I already had customer service experience, certain interactions with customers are nothing to me. Some of them you get along with, and some of them you don’t. But they still want to help out if they can. My customers are friendly!
Jim – It’s not so much the customers who are rude, it’s the idiots out here who yell out there car, “Get a job fat ass.”
Shawna – He experienced that yesterday.
Jim – When that happens, I just clap back and let it go. It’s not worth my time, not worth the heart ache, not worth the stress… There’s one thing I would want customers to know is you don’t have to give money to these people holding signs up. They might try to convince you that The Contributor is illegal when in fact, it’s covered under the first amendment of the Constitution. If you have trouble with someone flying a sign, you can call the police out. It’s the only way Metro is gonna crack down on them.
Do you being at The Contributor is helping you transform your life for the better?
Shawna – Kinda is. Sometimes it can be good, but sometimes it’s not so good.
Jim – It’s making it where you can at least eat every day. It helps you survive each day, at the bare minimum… I know so many people are just one paycheck away from being on the street themselves. Even if it’s 50 cents people can give, that’s something and it adds up. If that’s all someone can afford, I don’t argue with it. Change spends just like dollar bills. If you can help, help, if you can’t, don’t, but don’t look down upon us. It discourages people when you look down on us.
What is one of the biggest things that The Contributor has helped you with?
Shawna – They’re trying to help me get into housing. We’re really close. Just waiting on paperwork to come back. I’ll still go out and sell when I get housing.
Jim – It might not be as often, but we’ll still be out selling.
If you had one piece of advice for other vendors, what would it be?
Shawna – I’d say just do the best you can. If you don’t make very much, don’t worry about it. You can always go out the next day and make more then. That’s the way I look at it.
Jim – Keep your head up. There have been some days I’ve been out for 12 hours and made two dollars. And the next day I went out and made two hundred dollars. Every day is different and every day is an opportunity to make a new customer. I’ve met people who haven’t bought a Contributor in years, but they decided to buy one from me, and I brought them back.
Shawna – I had a customer on Saturday who gave me five dollars and I said, “Would you like to have a paper?” And they said, “Oh yeah I haven’t read it in a while.” I may have brought them back. The more customers you get, the better you’ll do.
What’s one strategy that you use right now to help you get more customers?
Jim – Smiling and waving. It does not matter if you’re standing outside a drive through or walking up and down the sidewalk. Wave like you mean it. It’s going to draw the attention to you.
Shawna – You don’t always have to smile at every car, but I always wave.
Jim – The more you look like you’re having a good day, the higher chance you’ll sell a paper. I’ve learned that from years of selling the paper. And you never know if that person you smile and wave at is having a bad day, and that changes their day.
What do you guys do when you’re having a bad day but you have to go sell papers?
Shawna – I just try to think of how good you’re gonna do.
Jim – I start cracking jokes. I’d rather crack jokes to get myself in a good mood. It’s not the customer’s fault i’m in a bad mood, so I shouldn’t take it out on them.
Shawna – If you can make the customers happy, you’ll make yourself happy.
Jim – The one thing that brightens up our day the most, is pets and kids. We have had kids waving at us, and we actually had a pit bull the other day love all up on us when they were at a stoplight.