Checkout Counters asking for Donations to some Charity

[JI7]

are people seeing a lot of this happening. it's usually some large chain like grocery stores, fast food places and some others.

when you are ready to purchase whatever you came there for they will ask if you want to donate to some charity . i think a lot of times they ask if you want to give a dollar.

does anyone know if these large chains benefit in any way from this ?

what i want to know is why don't the chains instead do something like donate a percentage of their profit to charity. they can tell shoppers that if they shop on this day or during this time a percentage of those sales will go to charity.

but instead they are asking for additional money from shoppers .

[xfundy]

1. People have hearts.

Corporations do not.

[itsrobert]

2. They get the benefit of publicity paid by their customers

They are able to go on a telethon and hand over the big check, from the "Big Box Store". They advertise they support "so and so" charity/local schools. etc. It's nothing more than an advertising game for them.

[RebelOne]

3. I usually make a dollar donation to worthy causes.

And I always donate to cancer or diabetes charities, because one of those diseases could strike me one day.

[Southpaw07]

4. I know our local convenience stores match whatever is donated dollar for dollar.

They do it twice a year. I can't recall which charity. I thinks it MDA.

[GP6971]

5. What I've seen is

"Do you want to round up your purchase to benefit XYZ charity". Since I don't know how the money is distributed, my answer is always no. Plus, I donate enough to those organizations that I support and know the money is being used wisely.......read minimum administrative costs.

[dballance]

6. I see it all the time.

It's almost non-stop these days wherever I go. At Safeway, at Petco, and at Chevron. I'll usually throw a buck to the charity if I know what it is and believe they are a real charity that provides services with the dollar I donate. Not one that spends most of it on marketing and administration.

[RagAss]

7. I will give to Special Olympics...none of the others.

[NYC_SKP]

8. So, what exactly is the problem? My chain asks, I say yes sometimes and no other times.

I don't ask if they contribute but if I wanted to know I guess I would just go to their website or make a call or two.

If they donate a share then you and I wouldn't be giving by choice.

What's wrong with being given the opportunity to choose, including the opportunity to choose to five a lot sometimes and not so much other times?

[BronxBoy]

12. I agree....

Most of the charities are usually pretty well known and, at least in my area, generally free of controversy. Sometimes I give, sometimes I don't. If it benefits a good cause, all the better

[Kaleva]

9. I see this in smaller stores

Usually asking for donations for someone diagnosed with cancer or for a family who lost their home by fire.

[Coyotl]

10. Whole Paycheck asks if you want your change or if you are donating it.

Errh, I mean Whole Foods

[Brickbat]

11. Our grocery store does about four a year -- a cancer one, an American Heart Association one,

a March of Dimes one and a muscular dystrophy one, timed with the telethon.

ETA: They also let just about anybody who asks come in and bag groceries for donations (usually mission trips or youth sports) or set up a table by the carts (school fundraisers, Girl Scout cookies, cancer daffodils, etc). It's good for the grocery story because they have a chance to do something charitable, and it's good for the charities because there's only one grocery store in town, so you're going to hit a lot of people.

[Ms. Toad]

13. Constantly -

and I never donate through them.

We donate 5-10% of our income to the charities which we choose, in a way which does not benefit the middleman (even if the benefit is only the glory it receives from bundling). I guess it probably increases the donations overall to those charities, since it obviously grabs a dollar here and there from people who otherwise would not donate. But I resent what feels like an attempt to guilt me into donating - after all, what kind of cold-hearted person wouldn't donate to feed needy kids, save abused animals, etc...

[Igel]

14. Big stores where I live do this.

There's always change container. No clue what they are, haven't read their labels. These are large chain stores. Kroger. HEB.

Even Fiesta always has something for some charity. (HEB and Fiesta are Texas only or Texas mostly, IIRC.)

There are also a variety of short- or long-term charity drives. The empty-grocery-bag season is upon us: You buy a grocery bag that "contains" certain things and pay for them. At the end of the week or month a food bank stops by the store to pick up the stuff bought during the week or gets a check for the money so they can buy what they need.

Every where I go I see something like that. High school or elementary school food drives. Daycare just finished up a pet-food drive. (Which I thought rather innovative. I'd rather donate a can of cat or dog food than a can of beans--the pet food's more expensive, donating canned tuna is trite and canned salmon or sardines nobody wants--seriously.)

[daleo]

15. I wonder if they get a tax break for their contribution

And legally, that would make sense, since there is no record of anyone else being the giver. I also wonder how much they take off the top for administration fees, money handling, book keeping, etc.