Grocer not responsible for your giving

Who knew that those bell ringers outside the Schnucks supermarkets were pulling in $478,000 a year through those red kettles. Well, the Salvation Army certainly knew and was extremely grateful.

This week when the grocer decided it was better for business and their customers to end soliciting at their entrances, the easy reaction would have been to dub the “friendliest stores in town” as less so. The Girl Scouts, the disease charities and the Salvation Army all could have bemoaned the loss.

Instead we got this from Salvation Army Lt. Col. Dan Jennings: “Most importantly, we are just grateful for the years we’ve been able to ring in front of the Schnucks stores.”

Positive attitude. It should give the rest of us pause before judging.

Schnucks joins Target and Home Depot as retailers who do not allow solicitation. Schnucks likely made the move because customers complained but possibly because Teamsters have been on their doorsteps urging a boycott. Teamsters are upset about a new Schnucks warehouse in Missouri that is hiring non-union workers.

Even if the solicitation ban was about the Teamsters, should anyone be expected to allow someone else to denounce them from their front door? What if your neighbor was on your stoop announcing to the neighborhood that he objected to your parenting methods?

Soliciting at the entrance to a business works because it is in your face. Getting people to think about and follow through on giving is a harder task that often forces charities to spend more on fundraising.

So maybe the solution is to use one of those mechanisms that rounds up your purchases and gives the money to a charity. Or maybe you take one of those paper slips that adds $1 or $5 or $10 to your purchase for a charity. Or maybe using the store cards that donate a portion of profits to schools or other causes is a solution.

Unless you are a Russian physiologist’s hound, you shouldn’t need a ringing bell to remind you that giving is an individual responsibility and that need continues all year.

This story was originally published August 26, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Grocer not responsible for your giving."