to not want people packing my bags at the supermarket checkout to raise funds for their kid's football/ice hockey/ highland dance trip to Croatia?

[bleedingstill]

My kids have hobbies. I pay for them.
Bag packing at supermarkets is a bit annoying, no?
On several counts.

I feel better now

SauBlanc that's a fabulous solution for the precise packer.

I know!

Gosh, I live a sheltered life. I had no idea this went on..... there again, I can't remember the last time I went to a supermarket. Is it like people offering to clean your car windscreen at traffic lights? Sort of offer of help with disguised menace?

I counsel for a bereavement charity and sit on two committees. All our counselling is free to clients and all our counsellors are volunteers as are all the committee members. We only have a few paid staff who all put in extra hours for free. We do bag packing several times a year and people are of course quite free to refuse the service and not to contribute. However without ventures like this we simply wouldn't be able to offer the free service we do.

oh no, ds is bag packing with the scouts to raise money for transport to the Jamboree next week

Avoid sainsburys by Brighton station next Thurs evening if you don't want your bag packed!

My local supermarket has this all the time. Last weekend, they had a wellfunded and wellsponsored football club from several towns over come in to do a bagpack. I hate the pressure to comply (I'm sure the children are told to start packing the bags before you've had a chance to object) and I hate it more when it's not supporting either a charity or a local cause. I will only give money under those circumstances, never at the bagpack though because I don't want to encourage it, I will give money to the extra collectors outside.

I haven't read every page of the thread, but maybe some context might be useful?

Our Scout Group needs to replace its hut within the next 3 years because it is nearly 40 years old and completely unfit for use. Mould and mildew, the roof leaks, the electrics are shot, the plumbing is almost dead. It is beyond patching up in any way.

The cost is £80,000, and that is a knock-down price because many of the parents have offered to give up their time and skills to help with the build.

We have roughly 120 members from around 100 families. Not one of them has £800 to spare, or anything like that amount. Some struggle to find the subs of £2 per week.

We have raised £16,000 through grants after almost a year of hard slog. That would have been more like £32k a couple of years back, but the cutbacks have bitten.

A single bag pack lasting 4 hours will raise around £1600 in a huge supermarket near us. We get four bag packs per year (because the store manager loves us), which should provide a further £19,200 toward the build cost over three years.

We train the Cubs and Scouts over 2 evenings to pack everything properly. I reckon that by now some of them could work for Ocado, they do it so well. We teach them exactly what to do every step of the way and what to say to customers about our reasons for fundraising. They wear smart uniform and we allocate 1 adult to every 2 Scouts/Cubs during the bag pack as supervisors.

We place a very visible notice at the entrance to explain why we are fundraising, and to explain that the bag pack is completely optional, but we would appreciate customers' support. The kids stand back from the checkout and the checkout operator asks the customer if they would like a Scout to help pack their bags. The kids are told not to comment/ grimace/ moan in any way if the customer declines the offer.

Every one of them has been a credit to us on each occasion and the customers tell us that quite vociferously.

The total time commitment for a bag pack in Scout/Cub/adult hours is around 300 hours - we get a bit over £5.00 for every hour each person "works".

And yet some of you miserable lot resent giving us 50p?

Suggestions as to how should raise £19,200 any other way would be very welcome.

There endeth the first rant.

Just say no, pack the bags yourself and give them 50p at the end of it. Simple.

10 year old: "can I pack your bags?"
Me: "oh you look tired, I'll give you a little break and pack them myself" (remember to be NICE, it is a child after all, not an evil demon who wants to squash your bread and pack the washing powder in the same bag as the biscuits)
Hand the 10-year-old 50 pence. Smiles all 'round.

Come on you are joking- private schools raising money for foreign trips...that is taking the mick surely?
I am astonished any school would have the gall to get the public to sponser trips......YANBU. Say no thanks and smile.

But Waltons- how do you know what situation people are in? For some people 50 p is not just 50p for people who are watching every penny and it is not just you guys at the supermarket it is people every where asking for money for their precious cause? So calling people a miserable lot because they begrudge giving.......that is the attitude people find so annoying.

The money you raise for your scout hut would save lives if given to charities working in the developing world- isn't their need greater than your scout hut.....you could find another venue instead?Surely children having clean water is more important than the scouts having a new hut?

Waltons... Now this is where it goes a bit wrong... you put a reasoned post about the scout hut costs, the scouts doing the bag packing and the procedures that you follow and then you say..."and some of you miserable lot resent giving us 50p".

What you seemingly don't realise is that whilst you're there four times a year, most weeks there is somebody there, with equal bag packing determination and many people can't afford it. Many people are also paying into charities month after month, as well as giving to ad hoc charity collectors.

That last bit of your post makes it more of a 'demand'. I don't think you meant it that way but that's how it reads to me.

cross posted with missslc.. uncannily

although I understand your point missslc, I think your post does underestimate the impact that youth organisations do have on the young people involved for some of them they can very much be "life savers" in the sense of getting them off the street, away from trouble and giving a focus outside of school - thats before touching on the life skills a lot of the organisations give the members. Its more than just a group of kids meeting to have some fun. Even for the members it is just fun for why should we begrudge them that anyway?

And finding another venue often isn't as easy at you may think. I have been on the hunt for new buildings before and its a nightmare task and still has cost involved anyway.

If people don't want to give dont give but fund-raising is essential for charities to survive.

I am not moaning at anyone specifically who cannot afford to give 50p, but I am just trying to explain the financial reality of bag-packing for charities.

50p from anyone on this thread who is otherwise a "concientious objector" to bag-packing could make a world of difference.

We respect their financial reality by preventing our Scouts making the first approach to customers.

Ah! That would be conscientious objector!

Waltons... Now you're suggesting that those who don't want to have their bags packed and/or contribute are "conscientious objectors". That is really offensive to me.

Please tell me that you're not personally writing the funding bids for scouts?

Like I say I always put something in these buckets, but how about some of you back-packer parents ackowledging that it is a bit CHEEKY!

bag-packer parents even.

Cheeky? Well, when your child wants to join our Scout troop and there's no boat for him to sail, or the subs have been put up to 10 pounds in order to keep the troop going so the kids who most benefit can't go any more maybe you'll rethink that attitude.

If they stood there and refused to let you past without paying that would be cheeky (and blooming rude!). Offering to pack your bag (without forcing you to pay), and having a bucket if you decide to give money isn't cheeky IMO.

Hey, never mind boat rides I'm just wanting to buy FOOD for the family - to keep body and soul together. But at the checkout you want some of my 'food' cash - for the boating trips - that's cheeky!

I've never seen bag packers for personal activities. All the ones here are scouts / army cadets / guides and they give the money to charity.

I've only seen the same as PumpkinBones and so I am always friendly and let them help.

YANBU. Seems to be a new thing in our area and I hate it. The bag packers (not children) stand at the checkout itself talking very loudly and jovially to you while they pack. No thanks, I'd like to be low-profile when I'm doing my shopping, not have the whole place listen to the LOUD HAPPY CONVERSATION with the bag packer.

I avoid by joining a different, even if longer, queue. Dropping a coin into a bucket while passing I don't mind, but not this compulsory joviality (if that's a word) and forced "helpfulness" where it's very awkard to say no.

Oh shut up and stop being a wind up merchant, Animation!