Some Expensive Food For Thought

Linda Galster blames no one but herself.

She's the first to agree that it was a stupid decision to buy meat from door-to-door salesmen. But she had her reasons at the time.

Mostly, she was hungry.

As a retired nurse on disability, Galster, 52, lives in poverty in a small home east of Interstate 75. There are days she doesn't eat.

So when two men pulled up in a pickup outside her house with a freezer full of steaks, Galster turned them away.

"I don't have any money," she told them. "I've been scammed before, so I don't want anything to do with this."

They insisted. She refused. They persisted. Galster conceded that she had a checking account but, again, she told them there was no money in the account. That's OK, they said, write us a check and we'll cash it at the beginning of the month.

Galster was still wary. Then they showed her the food. Her stomach gurgled and she began to rationalize. If she stretched it out, conserved and rationed, this could feed her for two months.

She weakened. I'll write the check, she said, but you have to promise not to cash it until my disability check comes in. One of the guys swore up and down he would keep the check in his pocket until then. His companion said the same.

Galster wrote a note in the memo: Do not cash until Aug. 4.

They dropped their asking price to $175 and divvyed up the existing boxes of food into individual packages. Galster carted them to her freezer by the armful.

With the last vacuum-packed portion in the freezer, Galster thought to ask for a business card. Sorry, she was told, I just gave my last one to your neighbor. Then the pickup zoomed down the road and out of sight.

"I couldn't have gotten the tag even if I had the brains to do it," she said.

You can guess what happened next. The bank called. Her check had bounced. She owed overdraft fees. There was no money to pay the bills automatically deducted from her account. The balance is now hundreds of dollars in the negative.

She called the seller, Direct USA Foods, to complain. They offered her free meat the next time the vendors were in the area, but that's not what she wants. That won't pay the electric bill next month.

When contacted Wednesday, the St. Petersburg-based company said it had no record of Galster's call.

While Galster's problems have no immediate solution, she wants to warn others to be wary.

"Word of mouth is what makes or breaks a company," she said.