No Clipboards Here
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Let's say you're out running errands and can find what you need at either of two stores. Both are well stocked and conveniently located, and both offer plenty of parking—but there's one critical difference.
At Store A, you can walk right in and do your shopping; at Store B, however, the chances are good you'll have to pass the person by the front door asking you to sign a petition, donate to a homeless shelter or buy an overpriced box of cookies for a fundraiser. All things being equal, you'd choose Store A, right?
People who promote causes near the entrance to your retail space make customers uncomfortable and could be costing you business you can't afford to lose right now. If you're dealing with this problem, you might take inspiration from one store in Newport Coast, California, that empowers its shoppers in no uncertain terms.
Under the heading Your Right to Distraction Free Shopping, flyers posted to checkout counters read: "Out of respect to our customers, Trader Joe's does not permit any solicitation near the front of our stores, regardless of the issue. Please feel free to ignore anyone with a clipboard or folding table, without any feeling of guilt whatsoever."
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Having at one time been one of the charity fundraisers standing outside the door trying to hit my daily targets; did this increase or decrease the take up of charity income?
If the store wishes to help charities by giving free space to a charity reflecting the values of the store's relevant target market, then the head office marketing gurus must have decided it was good for the bottom line. They call it Corporate Social Responsibility.
The fundraisers have a very strict code of behaviour and ethics which forms part of the training undertaken before contacting the public. Any complaints need to be taken to the charity and the Institute of Fundraising, but please don't make life any tougher for the minimum wage earner at your front door.
While not making customers walk a gauntlet may make some people feel more comfortable, I don't think this is the reason for Trader Joe's policy. I suspect it is actually designed to stop unions from trying to organize its shops. That's because, legally, if you let anyone solicit on your grounds, you can't then exclude labor organizations.
In my experience from the DC area, the grocery chains that are unionized allow solicitations (from the Salvation Army to individuals selling cookies to raise dollars for the Leukemia Society). The stores that don't: aren't unionized.
So I'm not sure this is so on point after all.
Good point Daria
Tesco, as one of the largest retailers in England (if not all of the UK) refuses to host to charities. They may be hiding behind this reasoning.
Sainsbury's does allow charity recruitment and fundraising, however I do not know the Union position in these conglomerates.
Garden centres and large pet food outlets seem to welcome the stalls. It creates a welcome at the door for these large warehouse type retailers with very few staff.
For a “Get to the Po!nt” feature, which I usually love, this one is almost pointless.
Sure, this has the potential to be a good policy for large stores who can demonstrate social responsibility in other ways, but like all things in marketing, please share the test data along with the opinion.
Is there any evidence that same-store sales increased more in locations where they implemented the policy versus stores with the same demographics where it was not implemented? Did they test for differences between politic causes and local fundraisers? Where is the science and the testing? If you have it, please share.
Btw, in my local community, any merchant who shunned the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and other youth organizations would become a pariah and lose a big share of their local customers, most of whom have children in these organizations. “No Clipboards Here” may have great advice for a liquor store or massage parlor, but not such great advice for any merchant that caters to families.
Cheers, JohnnyB
http://bit.ly/75KkSG
Good points, I would agree with them and I like your point cynical marketer about the poor image this would create for companies in the eyes of consumers. Im going to detour from the business perspective, and say that to close the door on these causes has a negative impact on society who so often live inside a personal bubble.
Would you agree that while not always the case one reason we feel guilty about walking past some people promoting causes is because we know we should do something but just choose not to.
Shouldn't we be encouraging society to help one another?