To absolutely HATE when shops ask you to donate?

[ProfessionallyIrritated]

IABU and I know it, I’m just hot, bothered and peeved off.

you know when you’re in literally anywhere, like for instance McDonalds and it always wants you to round up to the nearest pound… I can deal with it on self service tills as you can just click no.

was in Poundland earlier buying a couple of essential cleaning bits, came to £4.50 (don’t get me started on how nothing in POUNDLAND is ever A POUND anymore!!!!!!)

self serve tills aren’t even working so I go to a regular till.

Barely-out-of-his-teens cashier scans my items and then was like “and would you like to donate £3 to” I don’t even remember what it was. I was like no thank you, and he went (loudly) “are you sure? You could make a difference to someone today”

me: no thank you, and I don’t think you should be pressuring people into making donations when they don’t want to.

him: well a lot of our customers do donate so that’s why we ask

if it was rounding up to the nearest 10p or even 50p I don’t think I’d mind as much but THREE POUNDS? that’s only just less than what my shopping came to…..

I know charities need to raise money and IA definitely BU but why the fuck do shops ask people to donate to charity? It doesn’t help their buisness presumably. And what happened to just pressing a button on the PIN pad to say no instead of having to verbally broadcast it? It’s almost like being peer pressured into donating ffs.

I can barely afford to live as it is, I don’t have the money to be donating to charity at the moment as mean as that makes me sound

YANBU I absolutely hate it and often wonder if it’s worth it to the point charities get loads of donations. There’s a cost of living crisis FFS

I’ve never come across this, ever, not in a shop.

Its an absolute cheek.

Just say "no I have my charities I donate to" or even "I already have a monthly DD to [name of charity they are trying to push).

Or, just "no thank you".

And if I ever got the "don't you care if children/animals die" I'd just say "no, I don't!" I don't care what strangers think of me.

I don't think I have, but I've seen it on websites. It's usually only £1 though so I just do it.

It’s always in Tesco/ McDonalds and a few others. They make way more profits than me, So I think it’s in really bad taste.

Asda do £1 for breast charity. I give to other charities of my choice.

It's very cheeky, especially in proportion to what you were spending. They bank on people being too embarrassed to say no.

You just need to get better at not caring what they say or think and take no notice.

Im not heartless, I give to the charities I choose by direct debit, I will buy things for homeless people, but I say no to anything else in shops or on the street.

I always refuse...its a way of the shop reducing their tax bill as all the charitable donations go in their name

Just say that you've already donated. It'll help you feel less dramatic.

I don't donate via shop tills out of principle as I have no idea whether the company will actually donate this money and if they did how can they claim tax relief?

My rule is that I will generously sponsor people I know who are taking part in some sort of event (running, cycle etc). Direct debit, checkout top ups etc nope...

I hate this. I was in Wilko yesterday and I kept waving my card at it and it wouldn't accept it... Finally the woman said "you have to click to say if you want to donate or not". If I wanted to donate I'd bloody donate. Fuck off, I just want to pay.

Wow, so that's why they do it. Not because they actually give a shit.

It seems to be happening in more and more places. It annoys me too. I'm not a total cold hearted bitch, and do give to charity, but it's usually a considered choice. Not when I'm caught on the hop after buying emergency tampons.

I knew this was going to be about Poundland as it bugs me too .
However there is the option to press no (the red button) and here it's only 25p.

YABU. A polite “no thank you” will suffice.

There’s no need to make a snarky comment about the cashier’s age, or be rude to him. He’s literally just doing his job.

If you don’t like it, speak to the company - the people who have the power to do something about it.

It’s not fair to make a comment to him about something out of his control, and he isn’t going to pass your comment on to management (and even if he did, nothing would change).

It works. People donate. So they’re not going to stop doing it even though some people, like you, are rude to the cashiers over it.

I don't mind it being given as an option at self serve - you can just click no and it's no one else's business. However the pressure from the cashier in OP's example would have pissed me right off. It's bad enough having to avoid the chuggers outside the shops without the checkout staff bugging you as well.

The one time I agreed still irks me, tbh. Never again, purely on principle. I'd rather choose when/how/how much I donate for myself, and I don't want the shop to get the credit for my donation! 🙄

She did politely say no thank you - he was the one who challenged her and dragged it out.

Well, tbf, in the OP's example the cashier didn't take 'no' for an answer, but came back with more pressure and guilt. I don't feel sorry for him (especially since he'll most likely never hear about his public shaming on MN).

“No thank you” was my reply. It’s still annoying but if he accepted my no thank you that would have been the end of it. It’s the fact that the company are telling their staff to pressure customers after they’ve said no is the issue.

I agree I could have been politer though….

So not only were their self service tills out of action, but you were made to feel unreasonable and uncomfortable by not donating 3 bloody quid.
My "cut my nose off to spite my face" attitude would have made me dump the shopping at the till and piss off elsewhere.

It's a tax dodge. I refuse to do it through shops and lessen their tax burden. I'll donate directly, thanks.

I've never come across this but I think the checkout in shops is really not the place to start bugging people to give to charity; put a collection box at each till and people can decide for themselves.

You get the whole 'don't you care about people dying' thing with people knocking on the door for charities. Nothing makes me more determined not to give to that particular charity when they come out with that crap.

I don’t think that will be policy

Drop a note to head office