Fundraisers

It causes the employees undo pressure to meet these quotas.

My uncle, who has worked for Safeway 20 years, says that it is
suggested that they ask every customer "Would you like to round up
your change for ?"

Many times, a customer will decline, then dump their change in to the
bucket at the end of the checkstand, which also goes towards the
fundraising.

?????

One of the employees got written up for taking the change from the
canister and ringing it up as a donation, so that she would get credit
for it....due to the quota.

How does that make sense????

are you in the states? safeway in canada to 4 major fundraisers a
year. one is breast cancer, one is prostate cancer, and i can't
remember the other two. before that, each store would take
applications from local charities, and would pick one to fundraise for
the year. ones such as hopes home, who provide a day care for
severely handicapped children. they just received funding to open an
overnight daycare so parents of the children can have some respite.
my boyfriend works at safeway and has for 14 years. he hated asking
people for donations, mainly because people would flip out on him.
besides, who is your source about the discipline? here safeway is
unionized and i can guarantee you that wouldn't fly with them. also,
my boyfriend was a manager for 4 years, and never issued disciplinary
action for someone who wouldn't meet the quota.

I also have a family member who has worked for Safeway for 20 years. A
union rep told him that not doing it would be considered
insubordination.

They were no help. I am sure they are in cahoots.

It's not that they would discipline every checker who didn't meet the
quota. It's that they threaten to, and they could if they wanted to.

It's just another thing they could use to discipline you if you were
say, a 20 year tier 1 journeyman employee who made almost twice as
much as the new hires.

I guess I'm in the minority here. As a customer, I just say "no thank
you." For all they know at the check out you just wrote a $1000 check
to the organization they're raising funds for. Say no and move on.

Isn't there something illegal about that? I would think that
disciplining an employee for failure to meet a quota for something
they have no control over seems like a shady practice.

I worked at a theatre as a teenager and we were asked to get postal
codes of people who came, and since most people have a limited time to
get tickets, this always seemed rushed. One day, I got fed up with
asking people, so I started writing down all the postal codes I knew.
We didnt win prizes or anything, but I figured that someone from that
postal code was bound to show up at least one in the time we were
open.
SHHH...don't tell.

One more reason why I prefer going thru the self-checkout stations.

The thing is, it is REALLY easy to meet the quotas on these things if
you just ask. No bullying required.
I used to be a front end supervisor (NOTE: NOT a cashier), and I would
"win" the contest every week for who had the most donations. This is
while ONLY being on register when people needed breaks or there was a
rush.
My secret? I just asked everyone.
The process: "Would you care to donate a dollar to the Jimmy Fund?"
That's IT. I wouldn't ask twice, I wouldn't say one more word than
that. I just said it to everyone. If they didn't want to donate, I
wouldn't bring it up again. If they did, I would thank them.

I don't think there is anything tacky or shameful, and the quotas are
set LOW. If you ask everyone, it is so easy to meet the quota!

I do not thinka ny business has a right to impose their personal
charity on their customers nor their employees. This is a personal
choice and should be kept as such.

One good idea a store did in our area was to put a large poster board
near their store exit and they have posted various charities within
our area...some national some just local. THey keep the board updated
and keep information on these charities available to the customers.

In no way do they ask the customers to donate to any one charity at
the register and the employees are not required to ask either.
Such a nicer less intrusive way to do this I think.

I hate these donate at register campaigns too. Sometimes if I find out
a certain store is doing one of these things, I avoid the store until
the campaign is over, I'm sick of getting dirty looks when I decline
to pitch in a few dollars.

I know certain stores set these quotas and punish the employees for
getting less than they want and it has to stop! In this lousy economy
to punish an employee when they don't receive XXX amount in donations
per day/week/month is ridiculous! Perhaps every customer they get in
their line has recently been laid off and has no extra to give, that
is not the employees fault.
Practically everyone I know is scraping the bottom of the barrel to
get by.

Don't get me started on the people who set up tables outside of stores
peddling raffle tickets for a trip to the zoo or whatever. I once had
a little girl come to the door selling 50/50 tickets so her other
sister could go on a class trip!

I just thought of a solution to this problem-
If the store has a POS system with the touch-screen, self-service
credit card readers, then there might be a way to integrate the
promotion in to this system. On every order, whether or not the
customer is paying with card, then the request to donate should come
up on the screen, with a box for yes or no, and if they select yes, it
is added on to the bill. In this instance, the customer is not
pressured by the cashier other than their directing them to the
terminal, and it is not awkward because the cashier is not required to
directly ask for money, and the customers choice is discreet and not
publicly announced.
It would also be pretty hard to defeat this system in regards to not
asking unless the cashier reached over and automatically hit no every
time, which would look suspicious, and a manager would surely see or
customer would ask about. Therefore, quotas could be eliminated.

While I think it's great that they want to encourage charitable
donations, I don't think POS pressure is the best way to do it.
Usually there are signs up at the register, where you write your
check, etc., that inform shoppers of these opportunities.

When I'm pressured in any way to donate to anything, it just makes me
dig in my heels and refuse.

And unlike the report below, they are multi-week. And now they are
multi-month; we went through the Thanksgiving-Christmas food program
for at least 4 weeks, and now I think it is United Way they are asking
for.

I gave to the last drive, and I was happy to. But it struck me with
this new one that this is becoming a regular practice. It is nice to
do this a few times a year, but they can't collect for every good
charity out there. Soon they may go to a manu of all the charities
you can contribute to, and the checker enters a code for the one you
pick. What kind of shopping experience will that be?

If they have quotas, that is just WRONG. They can educate the
employees to ask, and they can follow up to make sure the employees
are doing so. But to have quotas and discipline, no.

Complete opposite.

We have the same fundraising at my unit. I always chip in my own
money for the 1st (100), 2nd (75), and third(50) place leaders.

I have found if you only do a first place, people give up.


And they are not Multi week, Id say there are 4 per year I can think
of.


Be careful that you do mistake hearsay for the truth, if you are
concerned, call and talk to the store manager.


Good Day

Every company I have ever worked for, with the exception of one, has
participated in this practice.

Employees are shamed into contributing themselves, then ordered to
sign up as many customers as possible or face retribution.

At one place I worked as a supervisor, I was expected to get my entire
staff to sign up to participate in every year's United Way campaign.
It was actually part of my annual review and could affect my
performance rating and raise.

I could go on and on regarding this subject. It is almost always
handled unprofessionally.