A little over a year ago, Your Smart Money Moves brought to you the initial story over now what is a phenomenon that has struck department stores, grocery stores, and even mom and pop retailers. Let me paint a picture for you. The executives of Whole Foods looked excitedly at the growth of their profit and their stock price and thought maybe it was time for them to become a good Samaritan. Aren’t we just lucky enough that we get to buy extremely overpriced food items from them every week? Some Whole Foods corporate department conjured up the notion that one way to become a better corporate citizen would be to ask us each and every time we grocery shop if we want to make a donation to their favorite charity. In fact, almost all retailers are doing this today.
Being the smarmy sarcastic business guy I can be from time to time, I had another idea up my sleeve the last time I went to Whole Foods. The cashier asked, “Do you want to make a donation today to support . . .” I quickly replied, “No, I am unable to make a donation today. However, my food bill was much higher than I thought it would be today. Would Whole Foods be willing to make a donation of a $1.00 to lower my bill today?” You would have thought I hit the cashier with the best Captain James T. Kirk stun gun because he just didn’t know what to say to me.
Listen, I am all for giving money back to charitable causes. Between my company and me individually, we have given away tens of thousands of dollars to charities. We do it because we want to do it and care about the organizations we choose to donate money to every year. That’s the concept behind being charitable. Corporations that think they are good citizens because they raise tens of thousands of dollars by peddling customers who are willingly shopping in their store need to get a gut check and look themselves in the mirror. You aren’t being a good corporation at all.
A Whole Foods customer generally won’t exit the store without spending $100 bucks, provided you want something more than thee apples, a hunk of cheese, and two bags of almonds. If you shop there 30 to 40 times in a year (even for small pick-ups), is it proper to ask your customer 30 to 40 times for a charitable donation? This type of behavior doesn’t separate you from the street peddling beggar with a cup and a sign asking for a dollar on the street corner. If you are so profitable, then perhaps you should consider taking a portion of your profits (not ours), and giving them openly to charities that you would like to make a difference in next year.
When you buy your groceries, you are often ashamed when you get home peeling items out of our paper (ahem . . . burlap) bags and scratching our heads on what we exactly bought for $313.42. While people don’t mind paying these ridiculous prices, there’s nothing worse than standing in line and having four other customers stare at you like a cheapskate when you decline the charitable invite from your friendly cashier. Do I need that kind of pressure at the grocery store? No, I do not! So stop asking me for a dollar and starting donating a dollar of your own. All I want to do is get my groceries!
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