Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 11:15:10 AM
Subject: Ref # 693616 - Reply from Giant Consumer Affairs
Thank you for contacting us.
I want to assure you that Giant has always been and continues to be committed to supporting the communities we serve. Giant Food receives thousands of requests from groups to use the outside of our stores for fundraising, educational purposes and to collect signatures. In order to best serve our customers, we have empowered our store managers to operate within established guidelines to insure that we can accommodate requests while respecting our customers' shopping experience.
In addition to the Salvation Army, we have been approached by the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, local sports clubs, local schools and other non-profit organizations. We believe that all of these organizations are vital to the communities that we serve. And although many of our competitors do not allow solicitation of any kind, we have a long-standing tradition of supporting these groups.
Many of our customers tell us that shopping at our stores should not involve passing by group after group "asking for money", "selling items" or "requesting support for a cause".
Our customers, like you, are among the most generous people in our communities and we value your patronage. We also recognize that it is only through you that we are able to fight hunger as the #1 contributor to many of the area food banks. And only through you, can we donate over $81 million to local schools through our A+ program. Our sponsorship of "It's Academic" has resulted in over $2.5 million in local scholarships. And last year alone your support of Triple Winner resulted in a donation of $1.5 million to children's cancer research.
We allow one group per day, Monday through Saturday, to solicit in front of our stores. Groups must meet specific guidelines and are scheduled by our local store managers. To allow us to accommodate all of these worthwhile groups, we limit organizations to 2 days per month for four hours per day. Due to our long-standing commitment to the Salvation Army we have a special exemption for their Red Kettle campaign of one full week in November and one full week in December.
We really appreciate your business and your feedback. Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional concerns or questions.
Sincerely,
Deborah Riley
Supervisor, Consumer Affairs
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
9 comments:
I thought her letter was nice. Seems reasonable to me. i mean, they could be total jerks and stop allowing people to fundraise altogether.
2 full weeks seems fair. something is better than nothing.
All this sounds like beurocratic hog wash!!! I use to shop at Giant and Giant only for years.......but that was before the new company bought it a few years ago and now it I have practically quit because they never have what you want. You use to be able to go there and find everything you need now you have to go to Super Fresh to find everything you need. Folks don't even waste your time just go where they care about children and the community. Who cares if there is a boy scout or red kettle out there. If you don't want to donate either keep on walking or just say "No Thank You". I don't need Giant or any other company to limit charities from trying to help those in need. Shame on you Giant and shame on you Deborah Riley for the crap you offered.
Since the Salvation Army has kettles in front of so many stores, I find it really hard to believe that only GIANT customers have complained about charity solicitations. Its a corporation and hence the corporate giberrish. It must be hard to have to spout that crap and still look people in the eye as if YOU actually beleive it. I've rang the bell in front of Giant a couple of times and I didn't notice any animosity. A lot of the people shopping there are also at the Salvation Army for their kid's Christmas gifts...I STILL am not mollified by their response and will be shopping elsewhere.
I agree with 8:46.
I work there, and believe me what Deborah Riley said is just a bunch of CRAP!
9:57 AM
I do also.
The loss of ringing at Giant for the month has cost the Salvation Army over $10,000 in donations I understand. If you are one of the families that might not get help because of the loss of these donations - I'm sure it wouldn't matter how "nice" and "reasonable" the letter was.
The way things are run in Salisbury is a lot different from the cities. Most of the people who stand at the kettles at Giant are people we know from the community not hired workers. They don't harrass the customers. This is just punishing a smaller city for the sins of a big city.
Super Fresh on College Avenue has a kettle. The community should rally around that store and show Giant we don't need them if they don't want to support our community.
I understand the content of D Riley's letter; however it still is bull! 2 out of 50 wks during the year is secularlism pacification. The holidays are the most important and needy time of the year to the majority of the people (regardless of religous or political affiliation). Americans need to look after each other in time of need...LIKE NOW.
Joe - check out the AP article about Giant in the Sunday Daily Times, Page B2 - DC area Salvation Army kettles are down by 32%!!!
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