Dateline -- San Diego. We get another report of corporate perfidy. Those weasel gay-bashers at Target, right? You heard the latest?
A San Diego superior court judge will hear arguments Friday as to whether a local LGBT grassroots group should be prevented from canvassing in front of a Target store, San Diego Gay and Lesbian News reports.
In court documents, Target Corp. has alleged that the group, Canvass for a Cause, violates the retailer's no-solicitation policy and has exhibited "angry and aggressive" behavior toward shoppers outside a Target store in Poway, near San Diego.
Needless to say, the defendants are hardly feeling defensive:
"It's very David versus Goliath," Canvass for a Cause executive director Tres Watson told NPR. "We understand they're the Goliath in the room. They've got all money in world to get us to stop talking about gay marriage."
I worked for Target for nearly a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s in their store operations division. Target may be many things, but it has no desire to be an arbiter or advocate for or against gay marriage. They just don't want people out in front of their store. From the article:
In a statement to The Advocate, a spokesperson for Target wrote, "In response to feedback from many guests, Target long ago established a solicitation policy at our stores nationwide. To provide a distraction-free shopping environment for our guests, we do not permit solicitation or petitioning at our stores regardless of the cause or issue being represented. Target actively and consistently enforces its solicitation policy and, if necessary, takes legal action against solicitors who do not comply with requests to cease their activity. Our legal action was in no way related to the cause of the organization and was done so to be consistent with our long-standing policy of providing a distraction-free shopping experience by not permitting solicitors at our stores. Target has taken similar action against a number of organizations that represent a wide variety of causes and issues."
This is true. I know this because I personally played a role in the administration of this policy. I managed the vending machine management program when I worked for Target. Assuming you even pay attention to such things, you may have noticed something about Target that is very different than its competitors. When you walk into a Walmart, you run a gauntlet of candy machines, kiddie rides and other coin-operated vending. Sometimes it is right in the vestibule, other times it's in a separate room, but it's always there. If you walk in or out of a Cub Foods store, you see the same thing, along with soda vending in the exits.
When you walk into a Target store, you don't see that. Target doesn't want its shoppers solely focused on shopping, so there is no public vending at Target. We only allowed vending machines in the team member lounges. I had vending machine companies approaching me every day. I was offered opportunities to place public vending on Target property that could have made millions of dollars for the company. I turned down those offers every time and my superiors were delighted that I did.
The same policy of avoiding distractions holds for anyone soliciting on Target property. Target had once let the Salvation Army operate during the holidays, but Target put a stop to that about 6 years ago -- in fact, that decision was the topic of one of my very first blog posts here. You just don't see anyone soliciting on Target's property -- Girl Scouts don't get to set up a card table to sell cookies, there's no one selling wreaths or Tootsie Rolls. It's not the most neighborly policy around, but it makes good business sense. And there's another reason Target holds this policy about soliciting -- barring solicitors makes it easier to keep the grocery unions from trying to organize the workers in its stores.
I can assure the folks at Canvass for a Cause that, as a matter of public policy, Target is utterly disinterested in the topic of gay marriage. As the old saying goes, it's not personal, it's just business.
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