CHARITY

Target’s Salvation Army Ban Unpopular with Some Shoppers

By Wendy Griffith
CBN News Sr. Reporter

CBN.com – (CBN News) - Target stores nationwide are banning the Salvation Army bell-ringers. The nation's number two discount retailer behind Wal-Mart says the red kettles are no longer welcome outside their stores during the holidays. That move has many people upset with the retailer.

For many, the Salvation Army bell-ringers are simply a part of the Christmas season. Last year, the Army's red kettle campaign raised about 90 million dollars nationwide to help the poor. Target stores helped raise nine million of that or 10 percent, by allowing the bell ringers to stand outside its entrances.

The sidewalks outside Target stores will be a little quieter this year. No bells ringing, no Merry Christmas or God bless you. No, this year, Target is banning the Salvation Army bell-ringers from all of its more than 1,300 stores nationwide.

Target's decision is pretty unpopular with some shoppers.

Shopper Jeffrey Trimm said, "I thought it was wrong because the Salvation Army is a good cause. They take care of lots of people. I won't be supporting Target this year."

Another shopper, Barbara Whitmore, asked, "What's Christmas without the bell-ringers?"

There is even a Web site urging people to ban their wallets from Targets cash registers for banning the bell-ringers.

But Target, which historically had waived its no-solicitation policy to allow the bell-ringers, is making no apologies for enforcing its policy now.

Target sent CBN News this statement, saying, “We receive an increasing number of solicitation inquiries from non-profit organizations each year, and determined that if we continue to allow the Salvation Army to solicit, then it opens the door to other groups that wish to solicit our guests."

Target added that, "This decision does not diminish Target Corporation's commitment to its communities. Target donates more than $2 million per week and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours each year to the communities in which it does business."

Salvation Army's national spokesman Maj. George Hood called Target's decision devastating -- especially at the local level...

"It's going to be very, very drastic for the local community,” said Maj. Hood. “One Salvation Army director said to me that the Target money raised in his country represented 75 percent of the income that he has in that community. When you begin to strip budgets of 75 percent of a revenue stream, it means that some very difficult decisions will have to be made in the local communities about what they will be able to do during the holidays with families and what they will be able to do when the Christmas season is over."

Local resident Brian Myers said, "I don't know what I'd do without the Salvation Army right now."

Out of work and down on his luck, Myers was enjoying a hot meal at a men's shelter in Norfolk, Virginia. Area Target stores in Virginia Beach helped raise nearly $85,000 last Christmas for similar programs.

The Salvation Army’s Maj. Gene Hogg, who runs the men's shelter, says an $85,000 shortfall means something will have to be cut.

Maj. Hogg said, “We go out every night and we feed about 150 individuals. That program alone equals what we are going to lose from the kettle locations from Target. So we are faced with what are we going to cut, who are we going to cut, and, at this point in time, we have not been able to make that decision."

Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America says that Target's decision to suddenly enforce its no-solicitation policy reeks of political correctness and sends the wrong message to society.

Knight said, “Target is free to do this, nobody says they have to have the Salvation Army out there, but in an era in which most major retailers have banned Christmas, OK, they haven't done it officially, but you don't hear Merry Christmas any more, it's happy holidays, because they don't want to offend. We had one tangible aspect of Christmas beyond the commercial reason, we had the Salvation Army out there, a Christian charity that is collecting money for the poor at Christmas. What a great counter-weight to the almighty dollar, which is being worshipped in these stores. I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves, and I think consumers ought to take this into account when they do their Christmas shopping."

The Salvation Army still has the help of the country's largest retailer Wal-Mart, which annually helps the Salvation Army raise between $14 and $15 million during the Christmas season. But Maj. Hood is urging people to be a little more generous this year, to help make up for the loss of Target.

Maj. Hood commented, “We want the public to understand there has been a negative hit. We need to continue to raise the money so as you walk by the red kettles this year wherever you might see them, it may mean that you give five dollars instead of one dollar – double-up that gift if you can.

But Maj. Hood says with or without Target, the Salvation Army will continue its mission to help people in need.

Maj. Hood remarked, "We are an army and we will keep fighting for what we believe. You know what I really believe? It's all God's money. It's God's money, and we believe that He's in control; and if we honor Him and glorify Him, He's going to help us. He's going to help us through any crisis that may come along, and I truly believe that."

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