Bag packers in Supermarkets collecting for charity

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my2leftfeet

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Brendan's "toilet attendants" thread has prompted me post to see what people think of the phenomenon of people packing your bags in supermarkets with the charity bucket beside them. Practically every time I go to my local Tesco a GAA club/or band or swimming team are there - usually young kids - to pack your bags and you feel obliged to throw something into their collection bucket. You generally pass a collector on your way in / out of the store also!
I give to the charities I choose to give to and the local church - my choice - and I don't like to feel "obliged" to donate.
Not that I've "let off steam" I'm going to ring the local store manager and see what their comment is on the matter.
 
This is one of the few ways that scouts fundraise. The idea is that at least you are geting something for your €. It took over from the old bob-a-job which stoped for obvious child safety reasons. Other groups have copied the scouts on thsi one. Remember you don't have to contribute if you don't want to.
 
I don't usually feel too obliged but I am sick of the "ambush" tactics used by charity collectors. The whole "have you a minute for Concern/Whoever" thing gets on my nerves, particularly since it's money they want and not a "minute". And the collectors get paid (minimally, I know) and are branded up to their eyeballs (bibs, brollies, clipboards, pens etc), so how much of the money actually goes to charity in the end anyway?

But worse of all recently on a bridge crossing the Shannon, there were people with high-vis jackets standing in the middle of the road on the bridge appearing to stop the traffic (or at least the traffic was stopping, thinking it was the Gardai). It turns out they are collecting money for the local rowing club.

Whatever about the "real charities" collecting by dubious methods, I am fed up with local people looking for my money to support their hobbies or those of their kids. Nobody pays for mine. I don't even understand how people think it's ok to do this.

Rebecca
 
MissRibena said:
I don't usually feel too obliged but I am sick of the "ambush" tactics used by charity collectors. The whole "have you a minute for Concern/Whoever" thing gets on my nerves, particularly since it's money they want and not a "minute". And the collectors get paid (minimally, I know) and are branded up to their eyeballs (bibs, brollies, clipboards, pens etc), so how much of the money actually goes to charity in the end anyway?

But worse of all recently on a bridge crossing the Shannon, there were people with high-vis jackets standing in the middle of the road on the bridge appearing to stop the traffic (or at least the traffic was stopping, thinking it was the Gardai). It turns out they are collecting money for the local rowing club.

Whatever about the "real charities" collecting by dubious methods, I am fed up with local people looking for my money to support their hobbies or those of their kids. Nobody pays for mine. I don't even understand how people think it's ok to do this.

Rebecca
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I understand your felings and have often felt the same. I am a leader in scouts as I said earlier the bag pack is one of the major fundraising items during the year, we do it at christmas(1day)& easter (2days).

MissRibena said:
I am fed up with local people looking for my money to support their hobbies or those of their kids. Nobody pays for mine. I don't even understand how people think it's ok to do this.
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That is fine for yourself andmyself as we can afford to do so, not everyone is in teh same situation, we try to keep the cost of scouting as low as possible so that kids from every strata of society can take part. Also I would point out that many people would like to make a small donation to orginisations that they are not directly involved in at that time, maybe they were when they were kids etc, maybe they like the orginisation ect. that is why people contribute and if people didn't there would be no collections. voluntary groups need to fundraise , if you don't want to contribute don't.
 
I agree with you, I'm well able to pack my own shopping and anyone who shops at Lidl knows how to pack in a hurry!

But there is another way of looking at this. My wife is a leader with the Irish Girl Guides and every year they do the obligatory bit of fund raising by church gate collection and bag packing at Tescos. My wife hates the bag packing, but she has to do it along with the other volunteers. Most bag packers I'm sure would rather do something else to raise funds but it is one of the easiest ways to do so, no permit is required (as in case of draw/ lottery style fundraisers) and insurance is not an issue. Unfortunately for organisations like IGG this is one of the few ways in which they can raise funds for the various activites they do. If the government gave adequate funding for the many voluntary organisations that are working with children in this country we would have no need for flag days, bag packing etc. The few grants that are available (from the VEC etc) are meagre and I know that many of the adults involved with such organisations regulary supplement the (indadequate) funds by supplying materials for arts and crafts activities etc purchased with their own personal funds. In conclusion I think if you want to abolish bad packing etc. lobby your local TD, not the supermarket manager- but be aware that the money will have to come from somewhere else- probably higher taxation. Makes you think though about all the millions squandered on E voting, PPARS etc- how many voluntary organisations could have benefitted from such funding.
 
I was a tweenie, brownie and girl guide. I remember we had cake sales and craft fairs a lot. I also remember a church gate collection. We didn't do bob-a-job and we didn't do street collections.

I don't buy the whole "how do underpriviledged people afford it" line. I don't think that a lot of these hobby organisations have many underpriviledged kids involved (I'm talking about brownies, swimming clubs, karate etc). They didn't in my day but then none of those were completely free and involved wearing of expensive uniforms and required (albeit small) weekly contributions. To be fair to the local GAA, they seem to be far better than most organisations at getting a proper cross-section of society involved (maybe because AFAIK they are completely free) and they are certainly not the worst culprits for collecting at supermarket tills or stopping traffic - mostly the organise draws; which are a lot easier opt in and out of.

I also notice that schools from up to 10 miles outside the town where I live come into the town to do the bag packing thing, which I find a bit odd.

Rebecca
 
Bag packing is a pet hate of mine. It annoys the hell out of me...I have to admit I am something of a control freak in certain areas, and this is one of them. I want to pack my own bags. I want to put all the yoghurts/ potentially leaky fragile items together. I do not want meat to be packed with other products. I do not want soft fruit in with hard items. I want all the tins together. Certain items have to be packed right side up. Bag packers do not usually live up to these standards. I used to take a stand and tell the bag packer that I wanted to pack my own bags, and fair enough most of them were ok about it. But I still came away feeling like a begrudger for wanting to pack my own bags. I have given in to a certain extent, and allow the packer to help, but give directions ( they must hate me!).Then theres also the money element- I like to feel I have a choice in who I give my money to. But in these situations, you feel obliged to give them money. And when it's for what I would feel are worthy causes, like the major charities, I don't mind as much, but for the local sport groups I really resent feeling obliged to 'donate'. Especially as the 'local' groups aren't even local to me. So I feel I have to 'donate' to a group not of my choosing, for a service that I don't want. I don't like it and have complained to the customer service department of two supermarkets that I frequent, as I feel the blame lies with them in allowing the bag packers on the premises.
 
Don't assume that the 'expensive uniforms' would be a blocking factor. Having been heavily involved in one voluntary uniformed youth in the past, we would have made strenuous efforts to ensure that the cost of the uniform would have been waived or subsided, where there was a genuine need. I'm not sure if the 'expensive uniforms' issue would apply to swimming classes anyway, unless we're kitting out 10 year olds with Michelle Smith-style lycra suits now!

The question of Govt support or funding is more interesting. I suspect that investment in such activities is repayed many times over in terms of reduced health costs, garda costs, prison costs. From my anecdotal evidence, it does seem that there is a reasonable amount of funding available from VEC's and local authorities at present. Just by way of example, the current youth leaders in the organisation in which I was involved now carry nicely embossed business cards. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, but it's an expense that we certaintly wouldn't have been able to countenance in the good oul days.

To go back to the original question, the bag-packers don't bother me. If I don't like their cause (bloody Riverdance clones), then I won't give a donation.
 
The kind of uniforms I meant was (and this is harking back to my own time) brownie and guide uniforms, karate kit etc. When I was in the local swimming club, even the best of togs (now about 30 euro a go) wore out and became see-through/baggy pretty quickly with the kind of regular use involved (3 times + per week) - not that cheap either with goggles etc. factored in.

Rebecca
 
MissRibena said:
The kind of uniforms I meant was (and this is harking back to my own time) brownie and guide uniforms, karate kit etc.
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Me too - These were the kind of uniforms that we ensured were subsidised as required.
 
Definitely not in the clubs I attended. I particularly remember the cost of the brownie and guide uniforms in particular being really expensive and my mother wondering why we needed them at all (which in hindsight is a very fair question). I also remember my mam getting fed up with the swimming togs.

The local GAA clubs provide the kit (at younger age level at least) completely FOC.

Rebecca
 
I think it's important not to forget that voluntary organisations make a huge contribution to a society as a whole. It's unfortunate that the more marginalised sections of society are not as well represented in the membership of clubs etc, but I'm not sure that this is entirely the fault of these clubs and organisations. "Middle class" parents are probably more "pushy" when it comes to their kids and will want their offspring to be involved in the scouts or the under 12s soccer etc. The cost of uniforms or participation in organised activities is not a barrier to membership in the vast majority of voluntary clubs etc.
 
Vanilla said:
I want to put all the yoghurts/ potentially leaky fragile items together. I do not want meat to be packed with other products. I do not want soft fruit in with hard items. I want all the tins together. Certain items have to be packed right side up.
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I have to agree with Vanilla. I also hate bag packers in the supermarket. When you get home you never know what you'll find thrown into a bag. Frozens/Dairy with detergents!

Maybe if they were given 20 minutes training before they started it might help in someway.
 
I think it would be better if the bag packers only were at half the tills. Then if you wanted you get your bags packed, you could.
I don't like things pushed upon me like that.
 
In defence of bagpacking

Did I hear someone imply that activities such as swimming are elitist! (WARNING: I'm heavly imvolved with my [broken link removed] and am very commited to it... so a rant may/will follow).

Swimming is both a cheap and expensive sport.

A) In some Dublin clubs fees are over €1,000 per term and many swimmers feel pressure to buy fastskins costing €100's and other expensive things. The fees are this high because volunteerism is dieing in Dublin clubs; they now have to pay coachs and this has lead to them becoming more competitive than ever pushing swimmers to buy expensive kit. Swimming is perhaps one of the most competitive sports in Ireland requireing unbelievable commitment. Have a look at [broken link removed] training times - the seniors swim 9 times a week with total pool time of 15hr 45min. Thats one large swimming pool bill.

B) In my own club fees range from less than €100 to €155 per term. We are one of the cheapest clubs in the country but this will change because at present our wage bill is €0 per annum, i.e. we rely completely on volounters; we receive a credit union grant and we actively fund raise, selling lines, bag packing and flag day once a year. I strongly believe entry fees to any club should be kept minimal to allow everyone a chance, however this is only possible if everyone pitchs in.

When I bagpack I often meet people who choose to pack their bags themselves or who don't give us a cent. Fair enough thats their choice, but bag packing is one of our very few fundraising activities that works - 1) the GAA clubs run the lotteries because they are often larger and have more interest from communities than small clubs in other sports. 2) Dog Nights, Dinner Dances and other functions don't work because of our club age profile - few seniors, and plenty of ten year olds with parents seeing the club as nothing more than cheap childcare. 3) People can't stand flag days and street collections so we restrict that to once a year (or even less.. its been a long time since our last). 4) Again our age profile means there are very few activities we have the man power to do.

Finally Swimming Clubs cannot receive lottery funding because they don't have any physical premises. GAA clubs can get grants for building club houses and that sort of thing but we must pay our pool rent bill (which is enormous) out of our own funds.

As you can see our fundraiseing choices are limited - club fees, christmas raffle and bag packing.
 
Here in the sticks, (where there is only one swimming club, if you are very lucky), my local swimming club (for whatever reasons) are made up of a vast majority of the kids of the town's well-to-do's. There are no travellers or kids from the local council estate. They bag-pack and run flag days with the best of them. That was the way it was when I was involved too (about 15-20 years ago).

I'm not saying that things are deliberately constructed to keep the "under-priviledged" kids out or anything sinister like that (I believe at lot of it is tradition/inherited). But likewise, I don't believe that the parents who collect for the swimming club are doing it for anyone other than their own kids.

I can only go by my own experience. Maybe it's all more democratic in the larger urban areas (although I'd have my doubts) but it certainly isn't here. I didn't and don't single out swimming either, it's the same with drama clubs, pony club, brownies, ballet etc. etc. When you know exactly who is involved and you know all the kids and you know who is packing the bags, it kinda sticks in your craw a little more.

And like I said, it's not just the kids clubs. The adults-only clubs are not behind the door with the paw out either.

Rebecca
 
Hi Rebecca - Just one more piece of information to throw into the pot. In my case, the behind-the-scenes work that was to ensure that in cases of genuine need, kids weren't blocked from participation for financial reasons would have been invisible to other kids and parents. It wasn't widely advertised or highlighted. It wasn't always the obvious 'poor' who were helped out either. There may well have been stuff going on behind the scenes in your club which was not visible to all.
 
RainyDay said:
Hi Rebecca - Just one more piece of information to throw into the pot. In my case, the behind-the-scenes work that was to ensure that in cases of genuine need, kids weren't blocked from participation for financial reasons would have been invisible to other kids and parents. It wasn't widely advertised or highlighted. It wasn't always the obvious 'poor' who were helped out either. There may well have been stuff going on behind the scenes in your club which was not visible to all.
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Rainyday I Agree totally on all points.
 
pricilla said:
I think it would be better if the bag packers only were at half the tills. Then if you wanted you get your bags packed, you could.
I don't like things pushed upon me like that.
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That's the best suggestion I've heard. Let Tesco stick up some huge signs saying "Pack your own bag queue". I'd queue twice as long to avoid this in your face fundraising. You can't avoid it and it's not as easy as some people seem to think to let someone pack your bag and not give them money. Once or twice I've said "I'll pack my own" but I always feel like a narky git doing so.

So, Tesco, leave half the queues packer free.
 
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