catholicsphere

There may be a few of you who are shoppers at Target stores and have noticed something missing this holiday season from the front of those stores: the Salvation Army bell-ringers.

In case you haven’t heard, Target has decided to inforce a policy of “no soliciting” in front of their stores, which has barred the Salvation Army kettle-keepers.

The Salvation Army states that this will cost them $8-9 million dollars in donations.

Whatever your opinion of the Salvation Army … there is more to Target’s opposition to the bell-ringing tradition. Recently, a member of a local church contacted the local Target store to inquire about making a donation of gift card(s) or merchandise or something of the sort, for a community event being held at the church. Stores will typically make these types of donations to the community, however, the Target spokesperson stated — rather rudely, I am told — that Target does not support any “church events”; even though it was made clear that this was a community event. Wal-mart and numerous other stores were very cooperative and readily contributed.

Perhaps these policies were instituted due to the flack that Target received because of the support of Planned Parenthood. It is said that the Dayton Hudson Foundation, to which Target revenues feed into, no longer contributes, but Target also threw out the churches, too.