As in-store retail sales decline – due mainly to the increase in online ordering that began long before the pandemic – opportunities for loiterers have been shrinking as well.
“It used to be you could count on a 40, even a 50 hour week,” says Steve Sankist, a third-generation loiterer from Memphis, Tennessee. “If you wanted to loiter, there were plenty of places to do it.” Now, he says, a 25-hour week is the average, with many loitering even less.
In addition, according to the Loiterers Association of North America and Canada, 75 percent of loitering now takes place outside, compared to only 30 percent as recently as 2008.
“This means a lot of added pressure,” says institute spokesperson Louise Mandell, “especially during the cold winter months.” With fewer places to loiter and an average age approaching 60, Mandell says that loiterers need to step up their routines.
“Just standing around and getting in peoples’ way is not going to cut it anymore,” she says. “They should consider things like jingling the change in their pockets, hopping up and down on one foot, even saying “Good Morning” to people.
Sankist agrees, and has added a new twist to his loitering: Whistling. “As of now I only know one song, My Baby Takes the Morning Train,” he says. “But I plan to learn a new tune every week.”
So far, he says, his whistling has been a successful.
“I’ve gone from getting four or five dirty looks a day,” he says, “to more than 20.”
