Salvation Army Bell Ringers = C/D

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Spurred by this story about how Target, Mervyns, and a large property management agency have banned the bell ringers from their front doors this season.

I get tired of solicitors just as much as anyone, and I'm sure that people who have to hear the bell ringing day in and day out get tired of it as well, but banning them outright seems a bit churlish when there doesn't appear to be any change in their methods for the past 100 years.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:35 (twenty years ago)

I think it's bullshit. That stores are banning them, that is. Some malls here banned them last year, and I was pretty disgusted, and I'm disgusted again this year. They claim that the bells are annoying, yet they pipe in the most toxicly saccharine "seasonal" music throughout the day on a very short loop.
They just don't want poor people getting any money. FUCK BUSINESS.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:41 (twenty years ago)

Maybe they could get nicer sounding bells, or play a little xylophone.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:50 (twenty years ago)

Couldn't they just ask them not to use the bells?

― Nemo (JND), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:59 (twenty years ago)

We used get a Sally Army band playing carols in the streets the week before Xmas. 'twas lovely.

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:00 (twenty years ago)

How bad are bells anyway?

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:00 (twenty years ago)

Or maybe they can allow gays to join their organization and quit calling each other "sergeant".

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:03 (twenty years ago)

It's abd enought that the Salvation Army guilts people into giving a quarter of their hard-earned moolah to buy a family of six a toothbrush to share, but if they're also going to ring that bell AND stand in the way of the great bargains within, then they should be banned.

Although, giving the change you get from buying a 79cent slurpee on the way out is what the holiday season is all about, and it makes one feel good inside to know that they have helped the needy, at least one week out of the year.

It's just that when you get hit up for 13 cents at every store you go into, it starts to really add up. If only you could get a sticker to wear that said, "I gave at the Target on Forestrape Road" then you wouldn't feel so guilty.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:30 (twenty years ago)

I don't mind the bell ringers. They only last a month and I consider it a part of the holiday season. I would, however, like it if the stores would start banning the other peddlers. Every time I go to a supermarket I'm accosted by high school band members, football players, little leaguers, boy scouts, girl scouts, church choirs, newspaper sellers, magazine sellers, free car washes for a donation, raffles for God-knows what else. And then at the traffic light a man with no teeth but designer jeans washes my windshield without my permission and expects payment. The Salvation Army volunteers don't pressure you, there's no reason to feel guilty. They just ring their little bell and hope.

― Rebekkah (burntbrat), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:48 (twenty years ago)

I'm a right sucker for a Sally Army brass band. I think Hark the Herald is my favourite. They'll get a quid in their collection box from me every time, even if we disagree on God and the shunning of of bouze.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:51 (twenty years ago)

(I've never seen them ringing bells)

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:51 (twenty years ago)

I don't mind them, but I sometimes wonder how they put up with all that constant ringing themselves.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:55 (twenty years ago)

These are some of the least think-of-the-children retail ass soulless motherfuckers I've ever done heard of, I'll tell you what.

― nickalicious apparently slips into hillbillyspeak when he gets upset by things (, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:55 (twenty years ago)

I always see the bell ringers outside of the cheaper grocery stores and Walmarts, etc. I think they need to stand outside the N0rdstrom's and Marsha11 Fields. That's where the money's at.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:57 (twenty years ago)

Wow, I'm really glad I had to cancel my Xmas order with Target, then.

― Allyzay Science Explosion (allyzay), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago)

And a followup to that story:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/12/02/MNG80A52331.DTL

― mikef (mfleming), Thursday, 2 December 2004 16:47 (twenty years ago)

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