As I understand it, it came from the military essentially vietnam vets off at bus stations and then letting the local communities figure out what to do with them from there. It’s been co-opted to some degree, especially by the larger chains, but most of the local businesses near me keep up the practice because the military traps the uneducated into contracts that pay far less than poverty wages. Among many things, it’s a way of maintaining some measure of goodwill between local communities and military bases, and it’s looking more and more likely that we’re going to need every scrap of good feeling we can get as this slow descent into fascism continues…