THE TARGET CORPORATION has exiled the Salvation Army from its doors this year, and the Army will lose approximately $9 million in donations as a result. Many emails of protest have flowed into the Target headquarters, all of which have received the reply "Are there no prisons?" Well, not really. Instead they have received a vanilla response about the difficulty in maintaining an exception to the Target policy of non-solicitation.
Wal-Mart has no problem maintaining the Salvation Army as an exception to its general rule of non-solicitation, perhaps because the Salvation Army's mission is so closely tied to the root of the celebration about to begin: The offering of kindness by strangers to a family in need. Perhaps as well the tradition of gift giving on which America's retail sector has grown large and prosperous having its origins in the celebration of Christ's birthday may also have something to do with Wal-Mart's decision, and with the angry reaction of former Target shoppers.
There is still time for target to reverse its decision which, but for stubbornness of executives, would have been reversed last week as the backlash began and grew. Emails encouraging that change of heart may play the ghost of Christmas future in this update of Dickens's story. They should be directed to guest.relations@target.com. Link
We use checks to donate to Sallie: the kettle guys don't give receipts.