Mervyn's reverses ban on kettles - Salvation Army's bell ringers to return

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Wyatt Buchanan

[Tarpaulin]

Bells will be ringing at Mervyn's department stores this holiday season after all, store officials announced Thursday in a sudden reversal of a ban on Salvation Army collection kettles.

Mervyn's officials say they did not know how important their stores were to the Salvation Army's fund-raising effort when they decided last month to bar the charity's bell ringers from their storefronts.

Some shoppers, apparently, were so offended by the action -- Target stores also have barred kettle collections -- that they called this week for a boycott of the national-chain stores.

"We didn't fully realize the implications this would have," said Greg Terk, spokesman for Mervyn's at its national headquarters in Hayward.

Terk said some customers had called to complain about the ban. On Thursday, the company announced it will make an exception to the company's "no solicitation" policy and allow the Salvation Army to make collections in front of its 257 stores in 13 states.

A news release announcing the change said the store "regrets any challenges this may have caused."

Local Salvation Army workers said they would have bell ringers in front of stores as soon as they could, possibly by later today in Santa Clara County.

Each year, thousands of Salvation Army red kettles serve as collection stations around the nation beginning the day after Thanksgiving and continuing through Christmas Eve, according to the organization. Kettle donations stay local, supporting programs in the communities in which they are received. Last year, $93 million was raised through kettles that, according to the charity, helped almost 33 million people in need.

[grellis]

Former Target employee ping!

[grellis]

Why JCP? What did I miss?

[newsgatherer]

We, at Christian-news-in-maine.com, have a very credible report that JC Penneys has told all of their employees tat they may not say "Merry CHRISTmas" to customers or each other in the store, that they msut say "Happy holidays or seasons greettings."

The publisher and I will be checking it out a various Penny's stores today and tonight.

[frankenMonkey]

K-Mart. Good customer service, also.

[Scandi]

ShopKo has the Salvation Army kettle and the ringers sitting inside their store--not in the entrance. Happy Day!

[Mister Baredog]

Mervyn's is a Target subsidiary (at least it was a couple of years ago).

The company used to be called DaytonHudson, they simply changed their name to Target because it's their most successful division. Mervyns used to be their best division but through their idiotic marketing they managed to turn it into a problem.

[gridlock]

I was in a Target yesterday, and I gotta say I think the banning of the bell-ringers is a mistake from a strict dollars-and-cents point of view. Even absent the effect of any boycott, without the bell ringers, you did not get the feeling that it is Christmastime at Target. I am sure their in-store signage was changed, but who notices something like that. After years of shopping at Target, I stopped noticing their in-store signage years ago.

But here's the thing, I spend money like a drunken sailor at Christmastime, but I'm tighter than a tick the other eleven months of the year. At Target yesterday, I was feeling like it was July, and didn't spend much. Usually, when I walk by those bell ringers on the way in, I'm throwing stuff in the cart as soon as I'm in the door.

But maybe that's just me...

[PAR35]

Not exactly a brain trust, are they?

Smarter than the management at Target. And they have the courage to admit that they made a bad business decision.