Well, I feel like an idiot.
PetsMart asks me to contribute a few bucks to dog rescue organizations when I check out. Oh sure, why not? 7-11 has a jar where you can drop change to help Jerry’s Kids, or what ever that organization goes by these days. Hell, I’ll throw in some coins, at least when the jar hasn’t been stolen. These “oh, by the way, as long as you’re here” fundraising asks are so common—“Would you like to ’round up’ today, sir?”—and routine that I usually accede to them, and most of the time, don’t really know what I have contributed to.
That ends now.
Haggen, with 2,200 stores in 34 states and one of the grocery store chains owned by Albertsons Companies, including Safeway, Shaw’s, Vons, and Randalls, asks customers during checkout to donate to a pool of organizations promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.” How many customers know what they are supporting? How many think DEI is just the acronym for the latest dread disease, like “COPD”? How many think about what they are giving money to when they are solicited in the middle of a basic transaction that one is seeking to complete as quickly as possible?
I don’t know, but I know how fundraisers think, having been one for many years, and the sneaks and activists who devised these tricks to siphon off money for political causes and social engineering from people not having the slightest clue what they are giving believe that the answers are “Few,” “More than you’d think,” and “Not enough to stop this scam from raising millions of dollars.”
The sign next to the automated checkout above informed shoppers that they can also donate at any register to the Haggen Foundation from June 14 to August 8 and thus “support organizations that make positive social changes to ensure all community members live a healthy and fully inclusive life.” Awwww, that sounds nice! Why not, especially when you barely think about it? Except that “positive social changes” can mean anything from Black Lives Matter to People Who Glue Themselves to Fine Art To Fight Climate Change to Israel boycotts.
Of course, if you are responsible and competent, you should check and see what you are endorsing. But it’s only a buck or two, you’re in line, and what kind of person pulls out their iPhone and says, “Well, wait while I check your website”? If you did that at Haggen’s, you’d learn that your money will benefit 14 nonprofits that you may not know a thing about. The organizations’s DEI statement proclaims the company’s commitment to “diversity, equity, and inclusion”—which often means discrimination of the sort that the Supreme Court just (correctly) condemned, and “thoughtful people practices.” What does that even mean? Thoughtful practices using people? The practices thoughtful people engage in? Ramalangadingdong! It just sounds nice. It’s meaningless virtue-signaling to suck you in.
Group Vice President, Chief Talent and Diversity Officer Monique Lanaux issued this Authentic Frontier Gibberish: “We are committed to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that reflects the rich diversity of the communities we serve. We believe that every associate is to be celebrated and have equal access to opportunities and resources. We will advance our culture through open communication and ensure that everyone – customers, associates, business partners, and people in the neighborhoods in which we operate – are treated with Courtesy, Dignity and Respect.”
Open communication!—except when we are using deceptive fundraising techniques to separate customers from their cash a few bucks at a time. The statement is just PR fog. I recommend not trusting anyone who talks this way, and any organization that employs them.
You can make up your own mind, but as for me, I’ve fallen for this con for the last time. It’s an unethical practice even if the cause or charity is worthy of support.
Ethics Alarms 
Unless it is an organization that I support anyway I never round up at the register. If I want to give I will give directly to an organization and not have most of it be syphoned off for the fund-raising effort.
I always reject the donation part at the cash register. I might leave something in the tip jar but that’s it.
Those are my feelings exactly. After agreeing the first couple times, I realized that they are probably taking a benefit from my donation and, for all I know, NONE of the money is actually passed on.
-Jut
The money raised gets counted as a corporate donation, with the company getting the PR and other benefits. It always felt like abuse of a captive audience to me. This automated donation is different than say a food drive a grocery store, where you buy a specific product, and it’s hauled at the end of the day to the local food bank. In such case, you know exactly what your materially supporting.
I was once asked if I’d let like to round up to the next dollar for charity. My bill was $XX.98. That $0.02 was the only time I said yes.
I rarely donate at these checkouts because;
1. I haven’t been sure what the organisation is about, and
2. I don’t know how much of my money goes to the organisation.
If it is a charity that I agree with and with the merchant’s part being to pay for the expenses of organising the collection so that none of my money actually goes to the merchant then okay I may donate, otherwise I’ll keep the money in my wallet.
Also when I see someone with a petition that they want me to sign, I like to quiz them on what the petition is all about. If they can’t answer these questions to my satisfaction then no signature.
Some years ago I watched a ‘Penn and Teller Bullshit!’ episode where a young woman got many people to sign a petition about banning dihydrogen monoxide. That so many people signed a petition to ban something that they didn’t have a clue about shows that there are a great many idiots around.
The ’round up’ presence is fairly ubiquitous these days, and to me it is a constant micro-aggression. I pay so little attention that I mostly couldn’t tell you who they’re soliciting for. It doesn’t matter — I have a fairly strict policy on who and what I donate to, and I’ll do it myself. In point of fact, much of what I donate goes to content creators on the internet who are trying to make a living creating stuff I and other folks enjoy reading or watching.
I do have to relate a grocery store checkout story that happened to me a few days ago. My grocery bill came to $128.27 and I gave the clerk a fifty and four twenties. He looked at those bills a couple times, counting them, then he took them to the customer service desk and spread them out and counted them again. Apparently, no matter how hard he tried he was unable to determine how much money I’d given him — he ended up having to ask a coworker. Then when he rang it up and the cash register told him to give me $1.73 in change — so he gave me a one and three quarters.
*sigh*
Even worse is the ubiquitous Tip screen for everything.
Part of it is the prevalence of credit card machines that probably have it programmed into every machine.
That seems more of a micro aggression than the charity thing.
But, no, when I go to the liquor store, I am not leaving a tip.
-Jut
-Jut
I’m confused about the last part; would you have preferred two dimes and three pennies?
Well, actually in this instance yes I would — I was trying to finish a roll of dimes for our cash box.
But more to the point, I took it as an indicator that figuring out two quarters, two dimes, and three pennies was just too difficult for him.
It wouldn’t surprise me that these business concerns and organizations support this DIE nonsense in the hopes that during the next round of racial unrest and riots that come to town, the mob will go easy on their businesses. “Hey let’s not destroy their stores because they support us.” Anyone thinking along those lines needs to remember that these mobs are mindless and not rational. They’re going to tear your stuff up and loot you just like the net guy. There will be no reprieve from the violence just because the business was stupid enough to pump money into the rabble’s cause. This misguided mindset has no problem biting the hand that feeds it. There will be plenty of paying it forward. Just not to you.