Sign of the times - overheard at the Whole Foods Market checkout this morning

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Whole Foods Market is running a promotion in which shoppers can donate at the checkout to support making micro-credit loans to impoverished people in the less developed world.  As part of the promotion, the cashier at the aisle next to the one I was checking out this morning asked a shopper whether she would like to make a donation.  “Not today” she said rather sharply.  Then, after a few seconds, “I don’t think you should be doing this—I think you should be collecting money for the homeless, here at home. There are plenty of Americans who could use the help right now.”. 

That got me thinking—poor economic times may well be polarizing people on everything from globalization to income tax changes.  But I hadn’t quite thought about how carefully an organization like Whole Foods needs to think about the charitable causes it is supporting.  Symbolically, they might get a lot more traction by keeping their charitable efforts closer to home. 

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Next entry: Be unafraid to change your mind - when new data come in Previous entry: Discovery Driven Growth soon to be available in a Kindle edition

 Barbara Figge Fox  on  March 30, 2009

The local supermarket, McCaffrey’s, is getting it right, with tear off coupons for the Crisis Ministry, and special matching donations on Valentine’s Day..

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