Flutterby™! : Beginning to look a lot like... 2004-11-29 16:34:18.53053+00

Beginning to look a lot like...

2004-11-29 16:34:18.53053+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments

Lyn has redirected Medley to Holidays 2004 at Uncorked.org, where she linked to The Christmas Resistance movement.

This weekend I had to buy some lumber in a place that had the Christmas tunes rolling, and at the mention of the music choices the clerks were already making symbolic suicide-type gestures.

Also in that vein, and I'm sorry, I don't remember who I got this one from, another positive note for the season: Target has indeed banned Salvation Army bellringers from in front of their stores

The Salvation Army bellringers have moved up-scale. They're now in front of Trader Joe's (a West Coast chain of specialty markets).

Oh, man. I had enough trouble evading the guy trying to sell subscriptions to The Comical when I made the occasional trip to Trader Joe's.

Conspiracy time: I have encountered some websites that claim that Target's dumping of the Sallies is in fact a greedy plot. It seems Target has a charitable promotion arrangement with St. Jude's Children's Hospital that involves selling gift cards that remit a percentage to the charity. Supposedly, since a lot of people end up with a few cents left on their gift cards after purchases and then forget about the card, Target makes an extra profit on these unused amountr, which is more than what they give to St. Judes. The fiends!

At least in Cali., the law says that gift cards/checks never expire - retailers are required to track and report the outstanding amounts. While Target may end up holding the funds, they can never actually do anything with the loot.

Ah, but Target can collect interest on your $0.14, which when multiplied by thousands and thousands of cards can become real money. Its also cash which they can use for all sorts of things, so long as they give you your dime back when you demand it.

I would bet, as long as they honor that request for $0.14 or $1.96 when presented, they can do anything they want with the actual cash they collect.

They've found ways to recover that money. All the gift cards I've seen in the last ten years or so specify that after a given amount of time has passed (1 - 2 years usually) they start charging a monthly "maintenance fee" against the balance until it's gone.