Friday 6 March 2015

To Give or Not To Give?

Anyone who has read my other posts will know that I'm a keen charity shop shopper and as a result give regular donations to various charities. I believe that giving to charity is a personal thing and should be an individual choice. There are many reasons people choose one particular charity over another be it personal experience with the cause of the charity or just because they like the idea of helping that cause over others.
The reason for this post is because I encountered something the other day which really made me angry and as a result I feel the need to share it!

Whilst out shopping into local town centre I watched with horror as one of those street canvassers, for a very well known nationwide charity, was approaching people in a very abrupt and almost rude way. I'm not too keen on getting approached by these people in general and thankfully I was just an observer of this persons arrogant nature because I think I would have had a few choice words for him had he said anything to me! He was shouting comments at shoppers as they walked by, things about how they looked, asking their age and in general was very pushy at getting people to talk to him. If anything I think the fact he was hollering at people for their attention probably put them off more than attracting them! Not all canvassers are like this and I've never encountered one this bad before but surely these people are told how to act appropriately to the public in order to promote such a famous good cause?! I know it is minimum wage for a hard sell job and you definately need to be a special kind of person to do the job but it needs regulating.

In a nearby city centre you can't walk five yards without being approached and it makes this stretch of the shopping centre a gauntlet of avoidance every time you want to get to another shop. I won't lie there is a little part of me that celebrates victory if I manage to get from one end of the other without getting stopped!! I'm my opinion it's ok to raise awareness of these causes but it's not ok to ask for money or financial details on the street.

So the moral of this rant is, it's YOUR choice who you donate to, how much and how often, so don't be pushed into it by sometimes arrogant and pushy sales people. Charity is a personal thing and should leave you feeling warm and fuzzy when you part with your cash not feeling ripped off or obligated.

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