The staff were pretty kind all around, facility was clean.
The dystopian aspect was how many people I saw denied, because they had donated yesterday. You can give twice a week, but have to wait a day in between. I saw at least four or five people get turned away, and they were all pretty upset. The line was extremely long - there are tons of people desperate enough to wait in line for hours to go through the painful process of having their blood sapped out.
I also got a preloaded card as my payment, which has a ton of fees associated with it - I’ll get charged if I use it at an atm or check the balance. I know these cash cards are often also used to pay people who work at like McDonald’s - it just seems like so much of the US is designed to nickel and dime the shit out of the poor.
I used to sell plasma. I was already left wing and aware of American desperation, but that was about the bleakest shit I’ve seen. Ive been to chemo wards that are upbeat compared to it.
It depends on where the donation center is. I live in a semi-rural college town with virtually zero homeless population. Plasma donation here is a bit different here than it is in the urban hellscape 25 minutes away. The atmosphere here is more “blood drive” than “soup kitchen”.