To not want to be asked for charity donations every time I pay for something in a shop?

[pennyHD]

It’s happening everywhere; even at a self serve check out we’re asked if we want to ‘round up’ for charity.

Every single charity shop I go in now does it at the till. I’m always polite and say no, not today when they ask for more money, but a man who works in one of the shops I go in takes a no very personally and starts slamming the till around and shoves my receipt in my hand whilst glaring at me. He once shouted at me for not wanting to ‘help people’ when I said no.

I give a lot to charity but I want to donate when and how I choose to, and not be put on the spot.

And as for shops like Tesco asking for charity donations, they can fuck right off and donate out of their hefty profits.

Hoorah for this thread. I am soooooooo unbelievably fucking sick of this now. It happens in almost every shop I go into these days. Beg beg fucking beg. Do they think people have got a never ending supply of money? Shop after shop, saying 'give a donation to charity, press red for no, green for yes,' and constant demands for money at the checkout and at the door. You also have the charity shops trying to get you to join in with 'raffles,' and people on the streets with begging bowls for this charity and that, and the 'can I ask you a question?' or 'do you like animals madam?' people trying to get your personal details and bank details for their charity!

So many annoying questions fired at you, and a deseprate attempt to corner you when you are just trying to get home with your food shopping. One woman tried to stop me the other day to try to get me to sign up to her charity, and give my personal information/bank details etc, as I was coming out of the supermarket, and it was clear I had stuff from the deli, milk, butter, yogurts, a freshly prepared pizza, chicken, and ice creams. It was 34 fucking degrees C, and the stupid bloody woman was trying to get me to stop there chatting to her and spend God knows how long signing up to this charity. No. Fuck off. Why are you stopping people on the way out of a foodstore when it's SO HOT, and they clearly have chilled and frozen food?!

I say no, no, and no again at every opportunity, and don't give a shiny SHITE what the shop assistant or chugger thinks, OR what someone behind me in the queue thinks. The advantage of getting older (late 50s here,) is that you are at a point by this age when you don't give a fuck. If I have spent £30 on booze, pizza, and chocolate, I don't feel a shred of guilt for saying fuck off no to a request for 25p to charideeeeee....... It's my money and I'm fucking keeping it.

Like many others I give (and so does DH) to several carefully selected charities of our choice, so these shops and chuggers can kiss my fat hairy ass! And like @SparklyBrickViper I am also sick of being asked to go onto 'this website' and give a review. (ie; give all my personal details so they can spam the fuck out me forevermore, but I do have the chance to win a £10 gift voucher for a shop I never go into!)

I do find often, that pretending I'm on my phone can be quite effective. Many of them won't stop you if you're 'talking to someone!'

it’s such a tiny annoyance in the day.

if asked ‘do you want to round up to £5’

you say ‘no thank you’

if it pops up in the screen / you press ‘no ‘ or the Red Cross etc.

then you pay, move on and continue your day.

it really really really isn’t a big deal and not worth getting stressed about. You don’t have to justify how much or how little you give to charity.

the ability to say ‘no’ politely is a basic adult skill that so many people on this site seem unable to do.

You say it press no - and then move on.

There is no need for a massive drama over it.

It really really really IS a big bloody deal when it's in every single bloody shop and store you go in though. (And in every sodding high street!) As a pp said, it's like death by a thousand cuts.

And you don't get to decide if people want to 'make a big drama' of it. If people are angry and pissed off about it, that is their right. It's not up to you to tell people how they should - and should not feel.

It is happening a lot more now.

Last time was when I was at Go Outdoors - I would hope the donation goes to a charity to help people get outdoors.

I give to charity frequently but I NEVER do it through retailers because I cynically suspect they do it as both a tax write off and PR ie "pretabucks generously gave 30 million to donkey cataracts research this year," when really they gave fuck all out of their actual profits.

I do save the change, adds up for me personally

I do, asked for donations to hospice for my 60th, if my guests wished, I needed nothing and didn’t want random gifts

A few days ago I was thinking similar thoughts to your post OP, as yet another shop assistant tried to get me to donate by rounding up. I am saying no and won’t be guilt tripped into it anymore.

A lot of shops where I am have even started physically asking you and pressing yes/no themselves! This makes it even more awkward to say no

I can’t remember who asked but I didn’t complain about the man who shouted at me. I might do though if he he carries on being a prick when I say no.

I did once complain to Cancer Research though after I’d spent £50 in one of their shops and they then had the cheek to ask me if I wanted to make a donation ‘to help people with cancer’. I pointed out to the lady on the till that surely the £50 I was spending was a donation. She then started saying that ‘most’ customers were happy to donate.

So cheeky. I don't give a stuff now as I have chosen the charities I want to donate to. So if If someone says something like that to me, I just say no I don't care. I usually manage to avoid eye contact with chuggers but sometimes don't notice them until it's too late.

I always say no to the PIN machine extortion.

So many wonderful charities are closing down because they do not have the money coming in

There are far too many charities which duplicate effort. There needs to be a lot of consolidation in the sector.

Yep! I have had this too. You spend in their charity shop, and the cheeky feckers ask for more £££ at the checkout. Scrounging, cheeky grifters. Fucks me right off. And (in some cases,) I don't believe most of the money they make goes to the people/the cause it's meant for anyway.

I quite like it and am slightly annoyed when the petrol station cashiers click the no without asking, I have never had any pressure put on me to click the yes.

Lucky you. 🙄

It's especially outrageous when they ask/pressure you to give 'to charity' without any clue whatsoever what the charity is.

For all we know, it could be somebody like Stonewall - especially as they are very 'assertive' in making themselves known, and not averse to playing the 'you do support vulnerable minorities, don't you?' card when pitching to the bosses who choose the charity.

Also, with the red/green button: even if they use the same way around every time (which, as PP have said, they don't), a lot of people will certainly press green without properly realising that it means to give extra. Green is standard worldwide to mean 'OK', so many people - especially those with poor eyesight - will assume that it means green to authorise the payment (as in the payment for the goods you're buying), with red only being if you need to cancel if you've pressed the wrong buttons of your PIN or similar.

If charities are convinced that people who give to them are freely doing so, why wouldn't the modern equivalent of a cash tin on the counter be a separate terminal at the end of the checkout, just for the charity and not mixed in with your actual purchases? That way, they could clearly publicise which charity they are and what they do, and - considering that everybody using it has actively chosen to give - offer a few options: so 25p/50p for those who are happy to give a little extra on impulse, but also bigger amount options for those who want to.

Incidentally, does this work with contactless as well? Do you get people wanting to enjoy the standard speed and convenience of just holding up your card, but having that completely negated and having to press buttons anyway, just because a charity wants money off you whilst you're dashing in for your shopping?

Yes, I find it exactly the same as restaurants that expect a certain percentage for a tip: it might be a radical suggestion, but why not just price each item up at the full amount that you hope to get in exchange for selling it?

They must know that a lot of people who use charity shops aren't just doing it for a bargain, but because they don't have a lot of money available. If you're buying, say, an urgent, essential item of children's clothing as your child has just had a growth spurt and you know that you just have enough in your account to pay for it before payday, how horrible to be asked/shamed into giving 'just another 50p', which will then mean having to decline and risk being given the evils, or knowing that the alternative will be that your card is declined and you can't buy the garment at all.

Agree should be banned. Some shop.staff don't.like it either

Yes to this. ^

South Park hates charity shaming too

😂 This is brilliant!!! 👏

I had one say “don’t you care about deaf kids”
I do but I’ve got to feed my own kids on minimum wage, fuck off.
They are pouncing from everywhere now.
One plus is not had any doorstep ones for years

I wonder what would happen if people routinely took items for the food bank off the shelves of supermarkets and then deposited them in the FB trolley beyond the tills, without paying for them?

Clearly, these people are in no way shoplifters, as the unpaid-for goods have never left the shop.

I mean, surely the supermarket truly believe in the charity don't they - after all, that's why they have their big display - and they aren't cynically exploiting it and cashing in off the backs of poor people so as to make more sales?

Good, so we've established that the supermarket at least are great big supporters of the charity. Maybe some customers are too, but that's not really important here - as the huge bounteous supermarket have tons and tons of lovely food available and they are extremely rich, so all they need now as the final link in the chain is kind everyday folk to help them by selecting suitable items that will be appreciated at the FB and then just popping them in the big collection trolley: simple!

I have a feeling that there are going to be some folk at the local FB in line for a real treat tonight!!

I’m assuming that what happened is that payment systems are set up for American conditions, where you are expected to tip in lots of cases, or where local sales tax needs to be added. So rather than make a different system for a different culture, they just renamed the payment stage as a potential charity option and sold it to businesses as a marketing/PR win, who weren’t forceful enough to tell them to fix their system.

Yes!

What a fantastic idea.

The only ‘big’ charity I give to willingly these days is the Ronald McDonald one.