Target Giving $1M to Salvation Army, but Bell Ringers Still Banned

Fox News ^ | 11/15/06

[ItsJeff]

MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. (TGT) is slipping $1 million into The Salvation Army's kettle, but it still won't allow the familiar holiday bell-ringers in front of its stores.

[peyton randolph]

If the bell ringers would just dress up as lesbian Wiccans with nose rings, I'm sure Target's diversity policy would kick in and allow them.

[NonValueAdded]

Then they're still on my banned list too.

[ItsJeff]

Let's just get this out of the way:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/sallyann.asp

[mombonn]

I used to do all my Christmas shopping at target. Can't tell you the last time I've been there.

[Quix]

Then I shall continue to avoid their property and doorways.

[Quix]

I wonder if legally they could stand at the driveway exits on the sidewalk to receive donations from drivers . . . would love it if they could. But, they'd not be likely to do so even if legal.

[rhombus]

I like to shop at Walmart just to increase the incidence of Walmart Derangement Syndrome (WDS).

[Joe Boucher]

Hey Target, I still won't go into one of your stores and I pass gas in their general direction.

[Mister Da]

I haven't shopped at Target for several years since they banned the Salvation Army. Is far as I am concerned, I will never enter their store again.

[deport]

I suspect most shoppers will be interested in the following rather than whether a bell ringer stands at the door way....


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1739386/posts
Wal-Mart and rival Target are brewing up a price war for toys, electronics and other things consumers may want for Christmas that could spell savings for shoppers, but profit woes for retailers in the critical holiday quarter.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

This morning on Fox & Friends, Brian seemed to be saying that these bell ringers are annoying to shoppers.

[Auntie Mame]

This $1 million donation to Salvation Army by Target is great! Thank you Target!

[georgiabelle]

I got this in my e-mail today. Thought that Freepers might be interested. I haven't found it on Snoops yet. So use your own judgement on the truth or not.



Wasn't it last Christmas that Target refused to let the Salvation Army ring their bells in front of their stores?

Dick Forrey of the Vietnam Veterans Association wrote.

"Recently we asked the local TARGET store to be a proud sponsor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during our spring recognition event.

We received the following reply from the local TARGET management:
" Veterans do not meet our area of giving. We only donate to the arts, social action groups, gay & lesbian causes, and education."

So I'm thinking, if the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and
veterans in general, do not meet their donation criteria,
then something is really wrong at this TARGET store. We were not asking for thousands of dollars, not even hundreds, just a small sponsorship for a memorial remembrance.

As a follow-up, I E-mailed the TARGET U.S. Corporate
Headquarters and their response was the same.

That's their national policy.

Then I looked into the company further.
They will not allow the Marines to collect for 'Toys for Tots' at any of their stores. And during the recent Iraq deployment, they would not allow families of employees who were called up for active duty to continue their insurance coverage while they were on military service. Then as I dig further, TARGET, is a French-owned corporation.

Now, I'm thinking again. If TARGET cannot support American
Veterans, then why should my family and I support their
stores by spending our hard earned American dollars!
And, have their profits sent to France .

Without the American Vets, where would France be today?

"They, most likely would be speaking German and trading in Deutsch Marks"

Sincerely,
Dick Forrey
Veterans Helping Veterans

[par4]

I haven't found it on Snoops yet. So use your own judgement on the truth or not.

Try using the Snopes search feature (keywords: Target Military) and you'll find:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/target.asp

Then you won't have to waste time copying and pasting the same urban legend again and again.

[posterchild]

I'm thankful to the Salvation Army for how well they took care of a relative in Gander Newfoundland on Sept 11-14 of 2001, and I always seek out their donation centers when I have something useable to get rid of, or seek out their kettles at Christmas time.
I don't need for them to be at Target or any other retailer but I can easily find them all over downtown at my old city, and presume they'll be all over the downtown of my new city. I don't expect Target to host them anymore than I expect an online retailer to have a donation line for Salvation Army on their website.

[posterchild]

A bit of background info - Gander Newfoundland was where alot of westbound transatlantic planes were grounded following the US aviation shutdown. A town of a few thousand suddenly had something like 35K people drop in.

[bondjamesbond]

Target stopped allowing Salvation Army bell-ringers in 2004 to make its policy against fundraising at its stores consistent.

Frankly, I don't hold this decision against Target. Nowadays, everybody is getting into the bell ringing business. You have the Salvation Army, the VOA, the PBA and various local charities. All of these organizations realize how lucrative a spot in front of a high-volume big-box retailer can be. In order to make it work, Target would have had to limit access to just the Salvation Army. That simply was not going to happen. And if they tried, how many microseconds would pass before some busybody judge slapped them down and issued a restraining order because they were denying access to the Lesbian Wiccan Self-Help Society?

However, if they opened it up to all comers, you would be running the gantlet just to get into the store.

Target has been very successful, and their success has not been by accident. They are not going to let their store entrance during their most important season of the year be defined by somebody else, or a whole lot of Somebody Else's.

[bondjamesbond]

BTW, if you like the Salvation Army, send them a check. Be generous with your own money, not with the money of a thousand passerby that you don't know.

I thought is was just the Liberals who liked being generous with other people's money...

[Fan of Fiat]

Finally a voice of reason. There are thousands of "good causes" out there. If they let the Salvation Army solicit, then people will complain that the USO can't. If they let the USO, people will compain that they VOA can't and on and on and on. Soon, I'll have to fight my way through 35 charities in order to buy some new t-shirts.