California Rite Aids Use Barry Manilow Music to Shoo Away Homeless People

There are so many homeless people in California that it’s hard for some customers to get into Rite Aid.  Vagrants block the doors, asking for money and loitering.  Recently, the store has begun striking back… with Barry Manilow music.  Apparently, when Rite Aid blasts Manilow, the homeless population moves on to a different location.  Though Rite Aid has experimented with various types of music, Manilow seems to be the most effective.

A panel discussed this on Fox News.

“What’s the chemistry that’s making this work?” Fox News personality Raymond Arroyo asked Laura Ingraham. “Why is [Manilow’s music] repelling vagrants? Here’s what I think it is: He has romantic, tuneful songs, many of which are based on classical pieces, and a lot of people don’t realize that. I think that it’s so opposite of the chaotic hip-hop music [today] that it drives people away — but I think a lot of people walking into Rite Aid might like to bop along to some music.”

Manilow’s publicist was not impressed by the store’s strategy.  “It’s not very kind that people don’t want to stand around and listen to his music,” she said. “It’s odd. He wouldn’t comment on something like this. I don’t think he knows about it.”

I, for one, think people are missing the point.  Why is the homeless population in California so bad that stores have to figure out how to actually get paying customers past them in order to walk through their own doors?  Just how bad is the homeless issue in my home state?

Lifezette has the scoop:

There are roughly 55,000 homeless people in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times, so this is no small thing — and that number represents a 75 percent spike in the city’s homeless population over the past six years. The state of California also has 24 percent of the nation’s homeless population (or 134,000 people), according to the state’s auditor office. Californians are about twice as likely to be homeless as their peers across the country.

This is just one of the million reasons why people are leaving California in droves.  I, for one, can’t wait to get out.  Its climate is great and it has much natural beauty.  But actually living here sucks. California bureaucrats are making this beautiful state inhospitable to normal people who need to put food on their tables.  Once the hotbed of innovation and investment, every single branch, every department, and seemingly every last bureaucrat is intent on destroying what originally made California great.  

Just another reason for the great out-migration.

Hat Tip: Lifezette

Image Credit: Tilemahos Efthimiadis on Flickr