Rosie Flores looks down the mainstreet of her typical midwestern town and can easily point out a number of businesses she used to frequent which are now closed. "That laundromat was there for over 40 years." reminisces the 32 year-old mother of two pointing to a boarded up storefront, "My aunt even worked there at one time." Moving further down the quiet, yet still clean streets more and more shops are hidden by matching plywood sheets. Each displaying the stenciled logo and phone number of this town only apparently flourishing enterprise, "A-1 Window and Boarding". Rounding a corner Rosie brightens with almost palpable relief as she see the neon sign of one business is still lit in the early evenings half-light. In a steady, almost glaring stop-light red the message "PayDay Advance" shines like a beacon from a corner shop just off the deserted main street. Rosie had never considered emergency lending until a change in jobs and a broken fan belt almost put her family on the street. The perpetually smiling single mother confesses she was never very good with mechanical things, particularly cars. When a loud noise under the hood was followed by the â€check engine' light she knew she should get her car to the mechanic but figured since the car still seemed to be running fine the trip to the local garage could wait until after she did her shopping and picked the girls up from school. "Big mistake." Rosie concedes with chagrin. In the middle school parking lot the car shuddered violently and erupted with a cloud of steam from under the hood. The resulting tow-truck service and repair fees came to a total of almost twice her available bank balance. "I couldn't be without the car." Rosie explains, drawing her jaw tight in memory of the inauspicious events. "My job is on one side of town and the kids go to school on the other. I need my car. No car, no job." Rosie first turned to close friends and family to try and muster the funds but found help in short supply. "Everybody was sympathetic, you know? But it's tough for everybody right now, so I understood when most of them said they couldn't do it." Still a few hundred pounds short of her needs Rosie found herself more frustrated than she had ever been in her entire life. That's when a friend told her about the payday loan service in her town. "It's something I had never even considered. I mean, I suppose I knew that payday advance services existed, but you know, I never really thought it was something for me. I don't know, I guess I always thought it was for really desperate people." Rosie laughs a little at her last comment, continuing sheepishly, "But though I hadn't really told myself yet, I was desperate!" As Rosie walks through the door of the PayDay Advance office today, she's smiling brightly and has her head held high. The woman behind the counter greets her warmly and by name. "It's not like my first visit," Rosie explains. "I mean, everybody was just as nice then, but I don't know what I was expecting...." Rosie stops her recollection, as if embarrassed to voice her stereotypical fears continuing with a churlish smile a polite whisper, "Let's just say I was nervous." Nervous is not how she appears today however. Rosie has come to repay her loan, on time and with interest. After a quick, professional exchange of currency and signing of documents, she chats amiably with the woman at the counter, and despite having met before they realize they have mutual high school friends. They exchange numbers and Rosie even gives the woman an awkward, over-the-counter hug which leaves them both laughing. "Don't worry," says the payday loans servicewoman with a laugh, "customers hug me all the time!"
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