Although the slower paced days of the friendly mom 'n' pop stores have vanished, today's busy supermarts still realize the importance of making customers feel welcome. They hire 'door greeters' to stand just inside their entrance and offer friendly faces and a cart to shoppers. I'm sure most of these door greeters love people and enjoy their job but you have to wonder if a bit of the personal touch is lost in a job that pays people to make others feel welcome.
The other day, I decided to visit a feed store to take advantage of its cheaper pet supply prices. When I entered the door and heard a friendly, "Hello", it took me by surprise as I hadn't seen anyone around. But I quickly realized that the feed store, too, had its own door greeter. And what a handsome fellow he was, dressed in his shiny blue and gold suit! Beautiful black markings decorated his face and brilliant blue tail feathers stretched below him. Sidling over to the edge of his perch, this gorgeous Macaw parrot seemed genuinely glad to see me enter his store. I had been in a bit of a rush, as everyone usually is, but I stopped and took a moment to say a few words, to which he gave his full attention. This majestic, exotic creature seemed pleased that I, too, had taken an interest in him.
The purchase didn't take long and on my way out, I heard the friendly door greeter, in his raspy voice, bid me, "Goodbye!" I believe that beautiful parrot's greetings were sincere and his friendliness made my day!
Since then, I've read that Macaw parrots are, indeed, quite social. In the wild, they mate for life and live in flocks of 10 to 30 birds. They roost together, preen together and fly great distances together daily in search of trees with juicy, ripe fruit. This picture of family and freedom contrasts sharply with the lonely, cage existence of the door greeter bird at the feed store.
As a US resident, not too many miles from the Texas/Mexico border, I was particularly interested to find out that smuggling parrots into the states from Mexico is big business, second only to drug smuggling. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that in Texas alone, $40 million worth of parrots annually flow into a black market that distributes them nationwide. Macaws are particularly prized among smugglers. According to TRAFFIC, a World Wildlife Fund trade monitoring unit, an exporter may get $50 per bird. More than 90% of these birds are caught in the wild, each earning their captors $15 in Mexico and $250 to $1500 in the US, and a few, rare flea markets and pet stores, a whopping $10,000.
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