The Christmas holidays are fast approaching, and that means that one of the nations oldest and most dedicated charities, the Salvation Army, will have representatives standing in the cold on street corners and in front of stores, ringing their bells and asking for you to throw a contribution in the bucket. The holiday season is when the Salvation Army, like all charities that assist the poor, receives the bulk of its donations, since so many people who are too self-absorbed to think about others during the rest of the year are transformed, like Ebenezer Scrooge, by the spirit of the celebration.
In the Washington, D.C. area, however, the Giant Foods grocery store chain has announced a severe cutback on the times when Salvation Army recruits will be permitted to solicit on the premises. Instead of bell-ringing six days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the holidays, the Salvation Army (and other charitable groups) now will be limited to six days in November and six days in December, for just four hours at a time.
“In order to best serve our customers, and not hinder their shopping experience, it is necessary that we operate within established guidelines,” said Giant Foods spokesperson Jamie Miller in a statement released by the company. Translation: “Our customers complained, and profits are tight. Shoppers come first; those who don’t have the money to shop are not our concern.”
Let me tell you: if you think people ringing bells “hinder the shopping experience,” try shopping for food when you have no money. Now that’s what I call a hindrance.
I can’t blame Giant too much, assuming this change was brought about by a significant number of complaints. Yes, it would have been courageous and right if the chain had issued a different statement. saying something like this:
“Some of our loyal customers have complained about the Salvation Army’s solicitations at our stores, and ask that we cut back on the hours when their presence is permitted. With all respect to our shoppers, that we can not and will not do. This is a difficult time for the nation and the D.C. area, with great suffering and economic stress as a result of the recession and widespread unemployment. It is during times like these that the generosity and charity encouraged and facilitated by the Salvation Army and other charities are most needed, and indeed, for many families, a matter of life and death. We ask our patrons to remember this during the holiday season, and to embrace the obligation of all human beings to care about those who are less fortunate than themselves. If the Salvation Army bells are jarring, let them jar us into compassion, empathy, and sacrifice for our fellow Americans, so that their holidays can be a little brighter.”
But Giant Foods is a corporation, and even though a statement like this would have brought it good publicity rather than bad, attracted two shoppers for every stingy one it lost, and boosted charity for the area’s poor and needy, corporations don’t always think clearly when customers complain. They don’t always think clearly, period. This is one reason why there are so many needy right now.
Giant’s complaining customers, however, are beneath contempt, and display the grimy depths of value systems devoid of generous instincts and untouched by the Golden Rule. We can get a good sense of what they are like from the online comments on the news item announcing Giant’s policy change.
“Desideratum,” for example, writes of the Salvation Army bell-ringers:
“…I hate walking by them while trying to buy food. It’s bad enough we have to live with the Girl Scouts and their over priced, under sized cookies. It’s bad enough we are hit up at check out to donate to some cancer cause at Safeway and Giant. I just want to buy food! And asking people to dig deeper? How many of the people receiving the freebees from TSA are capable of working and don’t? How many have refused to become a functioning member of society? How many are illegal aliens?”
So it isn’t really the ringing you object to, it’s the whole idea of charity! After all, why help impoverished children if it means you might also be buying a used Christmas toy for the toddler child of an unemployed illegal immigrant? We want them to be miserable, right? After all, charity is only for the deserving poor and hungry. That’s got to be in the Bible somewhere.
APFES writes,
As a Giant customer, I’m glad they enacted this policy. The bell-ringers get very annoying when they’re EVERYWHERE.
Of course, all charity solicitations annoys somebody. Those fundraising letters are annoying; those appeals from the pulpit are annoying; those calls from the alumni association are annoying. Those legless veterans asking for handouts outside the subway stops are certainly annoying. They are all annoying for three reasons: 1) they intrude on our consciousness, 2) they make us feel guilty if we refuse to give and 3) they work. And because they work, desperate people get help they otherwise wouldn’t get.
I would rather be annoyed than hungry. This is the thought that The Golden Rule should inspire in every shopper who hears the Salvation Army bells, causing them to throw some money in the red bucket. How sad and disheartening that the response of Washington D.C. shoppers is just to silence the bells.
Ethics Alarms 
The TSA launched their new Program to Examine Random Voyagers, or PERV this morning. SHOCKING story at:
http://spnheadlines.blogspot.com/2010/03/faa-tiger-will-work-airport-security_19.html
Peace! 🙂
Love it. This was one story Ethics Alarms had an early bead on, since I was personally felt up on the very day the new procedures went into place. Thanks for the link.
I dislike charities that swamp me outside supermarkets only because I can seldom resist giving them money (and they must know I almost always have some kind of change, since I just bought something within). It’s inconvenient, but I’d never even DREAM about complaining about it unless the charity was something I thought shouldn’t be supported like “Help Give Hep C To Dogs!”
Yes…those “Help Give Hep C To Dogs” bell-ringers ARE annoying.
Just what DC-area residents need, less opportunity to give to valid charities at the holiday season and fewer reminders of their own startling wealth. I am appalled at Giant’s decision! Though I do appreciate that they have to respond to the wishes of their customers. Still. The complainers should be ashamed of themselves. There but for the grace of God go I. Reduced compassion — at Christmas! Paugh!
“paugh!” says it all.
The Salvation Army does a lot of good, but I think it’s wrong to single out Giant. There are ALWAYS nonprofits outside my local Giant – boy scouts, girl scouts, you name it. It would be a nonprofit feeding frenzy outside the stores if they allowed everyone. And some stores don’t let the Salvation Army collect at all. Target banned them a few years ago, and I dont think I’ve ever seen them outside Harris Teeter.
waaalll, lookee here! There IS a place for “JUST SAY NO!” that actually makes sense. You can walk on by, if that’s your preference. But you’re risking more than you know. I spent a winter in D.C. once. Aaargh! Between Thanksgiving and Xmas, on long walks to work, the only shelter between me and the biting wet icycles of sleet were the bell-ringing (but otherwise silent) “feeding frenzies” of padded Santas and other musicians of the red-bucket brigade. And the excruciatingly tinny tintinnabulation of the bellllls stopped my teeth from chattering while they clenched. I left my nickels and dimes with them when my hands weren’t too cold. Forty years later I got help from the Salvation Army that was beyond price. Coincidence? I think not. Try tossing in a quarter some time. Four decades from now, I bet you’ll be glad you did.
You should forward this eloquent comment to the SA, Penn. Perfect.
What the complainers are really saying is “I feel guilty saying no to charities and what I want is to keep my money without saying no so that I don’t have to feel guilty and YOU, Giant, are the enablers who are allowing charities to send me on a guilt trip!”
On some occasions, I have had to say no to Girl Scouts, Challenge for the Cure, etc. Most common reason: I budget charitable giving as I do other expenses. I cannot give everything to everybody, but I am willing to give what I can afford. When that limit has been reached…I’m truly sorry, but I’m tapped out and don’t feel guilty. TSA, however, is one of those exceptions, mainly because all donations, regardless of size, are welcomed. Put $20 in the kettle, and they’ll thank you. Put in your loose pocket change, and they’ll still thank you. Put in one thin dime, and the response is, “Thank you.” And what’s the strong-arm approach they use to get contributions? They ring a bell. That’s it, they ring a bell. Personally, I have to be completely empty of cash before passing TSA by.
Thanks Karl. Perfectly stated.
“Well, here they go again.” Do you know that The Salvation Army is one of the very few charities that gives more than 90% of its charitable income to those in need? The Red Cross came under fire when it was discovered it used more than 70% of its funds in ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS. Do you know what the CEO of the Red Cross makes? Do you know that for decades the Red Cross SOLD COFFEE to soldiers on the battlefield? The Red Cross is a scam. The Salvation Army is not.
If you give to the Salvation Army outside of stores, most of the bell ringers can give you a sticker that says “I gave.” So don’t buy the lousy Girl Scout cookies. Don’t give to the various charities at the check-out counter. But DO give to The Salvation Army. They not only give to the homeless, they take donated cars and teach people how to fix them so they can get jobs. They do not jack up the prices on clothes given to them for their second hand stores (a la the Goodwill). They do a real service.
Bah humbug, you guys. DO YOUR RESEARCH. The Red Cross and others make pitches for every international disaster. The Salvation Army helps people here at home. Americans are in need, too. I have told bell ringers for the SA that I have already given, and they are always, always, very cordial and very thankful.
For years, my son and I picked out a Salvation Army child and got a list of things that boy or girl needed — coat, hat, gloves, sweater, etc. No toys allowed, but we always included one. We had a name, a size, and a code number so the wrapped gifts got to the right child. My son always picked the warmest coat, the best hat, the lined gloves, and always insisted on at least one toy. It was a great experience for him. And we always got a note back thanking us for our generosity. This is only part of The Salvation Army.
The Red Cross also used to cook its books, using its countless volunteers (and the funds they would have paid them if they WERE paid) to make their gifts versus administrative costs look better. Any wonder they were investigated in this regard?
Anyone who’s been in the Armed Services will give to The Salvation Army in a heartbeat. (My brother-in-law, for one.) Never, ever to the Red Cross. And they have direct experience.
But no, two seconds to drop a few pieces of change into The Salvation Army Bucket is just too much trouble, is it?
In this recession, I give to two charities: The Salvation Army and the ASPCA — because both give the vast majority of their funds to the helpless. Keep on saving your pennies, dimes, quarters, and dollar bills because you don’t have time. Buy that big turkey, the pate, the smoked salmon, the stilton, and forget those in need.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving you cheap bastards.