Saturday, January 09, 2010

The Charity at the Register

Last week I went scrounging for some après-holiday bargains and at Brooks Brothers found a shirt and trousers suitably discounted. There, too, the register clerk informed me that I had benefited from the largess of the store and asked if I might want to reciprocate in the form of a contribution to St. Jude's. Well, all right.

If you shopped at any number of stores participating in the hospital's campaign—including Williams-Sonoma, Kmart, CVS drug stores, and others—you also were asked to contribute. Chances are, like me, you dutifully added to the kitty. But I wonder how many, like me, came away with a bad taste from the experience, an unpleasant sense of having been imposed upon.


Read the rest of Eric Felten on "giving at the store."

No comments: