Consumers Flock to Weekend Shopping Boycott
by Jody Brown and Allie Martin
November 22, 2005
(AgapePress) - - An official with a pro-family group reports that a boycott campaign aimed at Target Stores nationwide has succeeded in attracting hundreds of thousands of consumers who say they intend to shop elsewhere during what is traditionally the busiest shopping weekend of the year. On Friday (Nov. 18) the American Family Association (AFA) launched on online boycott campaign against Target, citing the retailer's decision to ban Salvation Army kettles from their store entrances as well as the use of "Merry Christmas" in their in-store promotions and retail advertising. By the following Monday, almost 300,000 individuals had "signed" an online petition indicating they planned to express their disapproval of that decision by avoiding Target Stores during the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend. At press time, that number had jumped to more than 340,000.
A spokesman for AFA says Target's choice makes it, well, an easy target for concerned consumers.
Randy Sharp | |
"Target's decision to do away with 'Merry Christmas' and Salvation Army bell ringers has made them an easy bull's-eye for people who are fed up with politically correct retailers," says Randy Sharp, AFA's director of special projects. "Shoppers are growingly disgruntled by companies that are choosing to do away with a simple greeting like 'Merry Christmas,' and they are showing it with their pocketbooks." Apparently Sharp intends to join them. He says if Target does not want to wish him a Merry Christmas, that's fine with him. In return, he says he will do his part to "make sure they don't have a profitable one."
According to Sharp, the response to the online campaign over the weekend equates to more than 4,000 electronic signatures an hour. He says AFA is hoping the success of the campaign conveys a message to other retailers that are currently displaying -- or thinking about promoting -- what his group sees as "anti-Christian bias" when they purposely avoid "the 'C' word" in their promotions and in-store greetings. Toward that end, AFA is forwarding electronic copies of the Target petition to other major retailers, reminding them that Christmas comes once a year -- "just in case they forget," says the AFA official.
'O Holiday Tree, O Holiday Tree'
Meanwhile, Sharp says Lowe's, a leading home improvement retailer, has joined Target and many other retailers that are striving to be "politically correct" this Christmas shopping season. He says the Lowe's stores are now selling fresh-cut "holiday" trees.
"The second-largest home improvement company in America no longer sells Christmas trees," he says. "They've decided that it's more politically correct to sell 'holiday' trees -- therefore their signs in front of their stores [say they] will sell you a 'holiday' tree."
Sharp calls the strategy "just another ridiculous example" of how companies are avoiding the true meaning of Christmas in their marketing in an attempt to prevent offending anyone. "[But] in reality," says Sharp, "they're offending a large base of their consumers."
He adds "this is the most ridiculous thing I believe I've heard this Christmas season, for a company to become so politically correct."
The AFA spokesman says his organization is encouraging Christian consumers to call Lowe's at 1-800-44LOWES just to tell them "just how ridiculous the idea of selling 'holiday' trees is." Lowe's operates more than 1,100 stores nationwide.
