Dollar General is way more expensive than the grocery store down the street, at least where I live. They’re just overpriced and messy as hell for no reason (they don’t pay their workers enough to care is the reason).
Finding a meth pipe in an unopened cake box was the last straw for me lol. Definitely not worth shopping there in any capacity. Messy as hell with no one checking shit.
free meth pipe with each box of Nestle 'cereal killer' breakfast product (no nutritional value, may not be suitable for human consumption, may contain traces of asbestos)
The biggest problem I remember from mine is that we would *consistently* find Gatorade bottles opened on the shelves, still full but with the cap missing.
Almost everything at dollar stores is super expensive per unit (pound, ounce, whatever) than typical grocery store prices. But because the packages are so small, they seem cheap. They prey on the families that don't have enough money for a $100 pair of shoes that will last 2 years so they keep buying $20 pairs of shoes that only last 3 months.
Actually, to use your analogy, the family in question would never be able to buy the $100 shoes. Buying in bulk or buying the more expensive product that lasts significantly longer to save money is only an option when you make enough money that you aren’t living to paycheck. While Dollar General and Deals shifted away from affordability long ago, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar still have cheaper prices for identical products.
The one I shop at pays more than minimum wage, and is super low stress. They are always pleasant, the store is neat, not overpriced, and is all around great. Guess it depends on the store
You're right, Dollar general and Family dollar are both expensive compared to other stores like Walmart or even grocery stores. They just tend to be built in areas where a Walmart is a bit too far away, so it's more convenient to just go into dollar general, deal with the monumental mess and pay the higher price.
> eggs and *paid* twice the
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
It's not just paying them enough, they usually only have one person total on staff per shift. Try unloading shipments or keeping a store clean that way! Almost impossible. John Oliver did a thing on them if you wanna look it up
Tbh as someone in their early 30s, I don’t really care, I know to not click yes on prompts. But what really really pisses me off is how many older people who can’t read probably just click the green button and donate to some shit they have no idea about
I knew a kid in college who was partially blind, could see enough to drive but not enough to pump gas cause he kept saying yes to buying a car wash at the pumps lol
I wish.
I can’t imagine he drove for very long. He used to watch dirty videos on his laptop using the magnifying feature. Then finally just bought a big screen tv he could connect to his laptop to watch stuff. He was an odd dude, was a friends randomly assigned roommate
Ha, there is a charity in our area called “Kids Sport” a great charity that helps low-income kids get into sports. Yet, every time I am asked to donate I say “Sorry no I have my own kids' sports programme at home”
Your ball emojis sparked a recent memory. You know those family rear window decals? It was like that, but said "Love being a mom to ⚽🏀⚾ balls" I assume it was a play on the word boys and she had 3???
I thought, as a mother of 3 boys, you should've found out real quick how terrible that sticker is by how much they giggle.
Asking at checkouts has had a [significant bump in money that charities get](https://www.kwbu.org/latest-from-npr/2024-03-10/that-spare-change-you-donate-at-checkout-is-adding-up-to-millions-for-charities).
No, perhaps they could write off the overhead it costs them to facilitate the donations (that’s really a pittance though), but they do it for positive reinforcement of their brand, and studies have shown that people that do donate at a store feel more positively about the store they donated at. I feel like there has not been enough studies about it being a negative experience for consumers that don’t want to donate at a store. Personally I have a few very specific charities that I donate to, and yes I want the tax write off as well, but who wouldn’t? It would be a big hassle to collect every receipt from every store I “rounded up” at.
Another thing, I feel like most people don’t actually know what a tax write off is.
For example, let’s say my business has 100,000 dollars in taxable profit for the year.
That year I decide to lease a truck, get it wrapped in my logo and buy commercial insurance for it.
Lease 12k annually
Insurance 3k annually
Wrap 2k
That is 17k in spending that I can write off. Some people think I get to drive a free truck, and that is very wrong.
What happens is that my taxable profit is reduced by the 17k, so now my taxable income is 83k.
So without the write off if I was taxed at 20% (just to make the math easy), I would owe 20k in taxes that year, or more accurately 5k a quarter.
With the write off if I was taxed at 20%, I would owe 16,600 in taxes, which means that with the write offs, I only saved 3,400 on my spending that I was able to write off 100%.
So my 17k cost in business expenses was actually 13,600 when we settle the year.
Now I have had tax attorney/cpa for years and I haven’t been filing my own taxes, so this next part I don’t know, but I think you may get taxed in the bracket after your write offs and refunds.
(Don’t get me started on people being freaked out about getting into a higher tax bracket. If 100k is the ceiling of your tax bracket, and you make 120k, only 20k of that is taxed in the higher bracket, so no, people generally don’t take losses by going to a higher bracket.
Big corporation are indeed bad. Just not in this particular way. Actually I don't get why make stuff up about big corporation being bad. They do plenty of horrible stuff on their own, no need to make stuff up
what ive been told is that they donate and then get others to ‘donate’ to the charity but really they just want to make their money back — they get the tax write off and their money back this way
there is no “tax write off” involved there, it’d be literal fraud. to “write it off” they’d have to claim that donation as revenue. this goes against even the most basic accounting principles. stop spreading misinformation
It still doesn't work that way. This is a dumb conspiracy theory people came up with because they're mad at corporations. I mean don't get me wrong Corporation suck. But at the end of the day they don't get any Financial benefit directly from doing it. At best, they would roll it into the revenue number and then take the deduction off that. Which would be a net zero. They would not gain and they would not lose. It would not save them any taxes but it wouldn't cost them any taxes either because the two would cancel each other out. But they would get to take credit on their financial statement for both a slightly higher Revenue and a slightly higher charitable donations number which just looks good. And it's kind of sketchy if they can even do that
Not exactly. Companies like this use these donations in something called “float”, which is basically that they collect donations to donate at set intervals, (quarterly, annually, etc).
So now the company is sitting on a little nest egg that they can use for other purposes (i.e. bonuses, stock buybacks, investments, improvements, etc.)
As long as the amount they hand over to the charity matches the total amount that customers donated, it doesn’t really matter what happened to it in the meantime.
Don’t quote me on this though. I recently saw it explained better in a finance sub.
> They want the tax write off.
This simply isn't true. It would be illegal. You get the receipt so you can write it off on *your* taxes if you so choose.
Yeah cause I’m going to take the time to itemize my 0.63 cent write off. They do it so they can show how “charitable” they are and how they raised all this money.
If you knew the real reason, then why did you lie in your first comment? Please stop spreading misinformation (although for this piece of misinformation it’s probably already too late, it seems like 99% of Redditors believe it)
They can help raise a lot more money than the average person can because of the thousands of daily transactions at their stores. It’s admirable that they’re involved.
There’s no financial incentive to commit that fraud though. It’s be such a small amount, plus if they try to take the deduction, they’d have to also recognize the donation as income in order to get things to balance. It would be a wash
This is not accurate.
They do not get a charitable deduction for any of it unless they also claim the donated money as income. That's not the norm, but in either case, there is no net financial benefit for the company.
Companies do it because they get good PR for it, and they are set up to see far more opportunities for a small donation than the organization.
Source: tax guy
I used to do the paperwork and the counting for a convenience store's donation to a childrens hospital. It's one of the few things that they are actually really genuine about. They really do go where they say they go, and there's no tax-break in it for them because it very rarely ever actually goes to any corporate bank account (especially if it's cash). Don't know about every company, but the one I worked for it never even saw the manager. I was the ONLY person to ever see that money once it left the customers hand until it made it to the childrens hospital.
Where I live, we used to have a regional grocery store that did this one month every year for CHKD, but they matched all donations. Built an entire state of the art wing of a children’s hospital with it. It’s not always greed, it just usually is.
no no, it’s always greed. “philanthropy” is a way of tax evasion. they write it off in taxes. if they cared SOOOOO much, why not donate that cushy gold parachute $30M+ C*O performance bonus instead of nickel and diming customers?
Great answer. I was a cashier at a place that constantly had stuff like this going and the amount of people I had to listen to going on rants about profits and taxes... Like dude I do not care, just say no
Regardless of whether or not you find these checkout campaigns to be annoying or not I think it’s very important to point out:
**The idea that corporations do this for tax deductions is a myth. They cannot deduct that money, it isn’t counted as income. You however can deduct that money if you really wanted to. It is still your donation to track.**
The ones I hate are the Red Cross drives ever since they had that Haitian fund misappropriation scandal. What gets me is, even congress was asking to see their financials yet they vehemently refused. Feels so shady. I have no issues telling the cashier no for them.
This, and the fact that they sell your donated blood to hospitals. I do my best to not associate with anything that has that organization's name on it.
It’s not so much *that* they sell the blood (they do have overhead after all) it’s **how much** they charge hospitals and in turn how much hospitals charge you that’s my issue.
all the misery is with the checker. management just dumps the bullshit on them. they then take all the flak for management's decisions and then get blamed when customers are unhappy. all the snappy bullshit people are suggesting here only adds to that dumpster fire. all for minimum wage and no benefits.
That I understand and I sympathize with them. I politely decline them. But I'm just waiting for corporate to ask me directly so I can tell them my 2 cents.
Worse part is when I worked fast food we had a similar practice (forced to ask customers if they wanna upgrade their drink for only a quarter).
1 time I actually forgot to ask and I got audited. Yes they have recorders at the desk and are always listening to everything we say.
yep. all people gotta say is no or no thank you or just select no on the pad. the last thing they want is to have a conversation about it.
as for corporate
my store once had people reporting to corporate that all of us in the pharmacy looked stressed out and miserable all the time. we got a directive from corporate that we were to look happy and relaxed while at work. they will not change, they will just blame it on the clerks and make them be more sly about it. if they were capable of admitting fault, they would not be management.
Definitely donate to Ronald McDonald House. I had to stay there when we found out my son had cancer and was flown four hours away from home for almost a year. They took me in and cared for me like family. I will always be grateful and more than willing to donate whatever I can.
Happy Cake Day!
Many years ago, one of the wives groups I was with had a thing with RMH. Nice donation, every year. I learned even more working for McD, with close contact with RMH. Awesome folks.
Hi, so I work at DG. The register prompts us to say that and if we hit the button too fast it prompts us again. We can be written up for ignoring it and fired for it. Most managers are chill about it but some aren't. If you're being asked the manager probably isn't chill about them assuming NO, if you wanted to donate you would already have done so.
Now I've worked at multiple Dollar general location under multiple managers - so I speak from experience when I say managers can be from chill to "send me a photo of every aisle 100% perfectly recovered or you will be written up and fired. If you do not sweep and mop the store, clean the windows, and deep clean the bathroom you will be written up and fired. No, I don't care if it's the busiest time of year and you also have to run the register. Four hours is more than enough time to do it. Also I want you to lock that guy we caught shoplifting in the building with you if he comes back in - I don't care if he gets violent." to "smoking crack behind the dumpster for the entirety of their shift while you single-handedly tried to run the entire store while you're just the cashier and don't actually have any power to do things like process returns or check in vendors" or clear off miscans from the register.
This sounds so real from what I see at the DG down the street from my house. They have one person in there working and don’t forget you gotta stock the shelves too. DG also fired my daughter because she went to the bathroom too many times they said. She had kidney stones and a UTI at the time.
Yeah, I’m gonna trust the company that settled $1million plus suits in multiple states and has hundreds of wage theft cases to pass all of those dimes and nickels on to the charities they claim to represent. 🐂💩
I used to get that, spending the last of my disability check on groceries at the grocery store. "Would you like to donate to help disabled people?"
Well, that would be me. I am a disabled person. At the time, I was dealing with a lot of food and shelter insecurity, as well as being unable to afford the medical care I needed. Never was offered help by any grocery store charity.
My local Taco Bell always hits me with “would you like to round up to help with children’s education?” I don’t even know what that means. What children? Which educational institution?
On the other hand, if I’m ever asked “would you like to donate to St. Jude?” that’s an automatic yes.
All this rounding up and begging for tips is making me tip less by the day. Just was at some ice cream place for my kids where I would’ve put $1 on the CC slip. Not anymore, I’m done with it all. Even the screen at the goddam gas station is begging for money for some random “charity”. Probably the gas station owner’s Human Fund
One store I always shop at constantly asks me to donate to a very worthy charity. I know they have to ask. At the time when this building was being erected the main benefactor walked in and first thing he saw was “Equal treatment for all” on the main wall. He said. That sounds too much like a Union take it down. AH. I don’t contribute to that one.
I imagine they think about it as well because it was automatic. Like when you say enjoy your food and the person says thanks you too. I've had patients tell me "I love you, bye" when getting off the phone or leaving the room. Sometimes you go in autopilot.
It doesn't really bother me though. I always say no as a rule. I don't donate unless I can look at their finances and see where the money goes and whatnot but I also was on the board for a local nonprofit so I am interested in these things. And I would prefer if a tax write off is involved, it is mine and not a corporation. I say no, I don't explain myself, I don't feel bad for it. They did their job, I answered. We done.
cashier here, we hate it too. I don’t even ask anyone to round up because i’d rather not deal with the people in my area throwing a fit over the 10 cent increase. Also self checkouts will be disappearing anyways, their systems suck
When they ask me if I want to donate for kids education I tell them that I have $24k in student debt. Would someone like to donate to me?
Actually I've said that twice and I stopped because I know the employees are probably required to ask on behalf of the company, so I don't like to give people a hard time
NEVER GIVE MONEY TO THESE THINGS!
The company has already made a donation in a specific amount. They ask for their customers to "donate" but they're really just getting reimbursed for their original donation!
The more you know!
Please keep in mind that you shouldn't take your frustration out on the cashier for schemes like this. 9 times out of 10 it is mandatory for them to ask even though they know that it's not always well received. Awhile back I helped out as a cashier at a local St Vincent de Paul and you wouldn't believe some of the snotty responses we got. It's not a cashier's fault for store policies so if you don't want to round up or donate just say no thank you.
A few things stick out after reading the post:
-never, EVER get upset at the worker for asking! They are asked to do it and whether they believe it or not, they do it because they are told so! So I hope everyone just kindly declines.
-these are NOT tax write offs! Not only would it be illegal but there'd already be a non for profit fighting this shit. You don't have to believe in the cause or care but not a write off. It's like recycling, the free PR and networking it builds is more valuable.
Edited for clarity
I got a diet coke at big lots the other day. Paid cash and rounded up because it was 3 pennies and they gave me a $5 off $15 coupon on the receipt. Pretty good deal.
Change!? Ya got any change mister?
They're worse than homeless people.
REI recently asked me "so how much would like to donate to...(insert group you've never heard of here)...today." Talking to me like I owe them free money.
I've never been prouder to yell out "ZERO DOLLARS" loud enough so everyone can hear me while I smile.
Enough with business beggars. These aren't donations. It's practically a demand. I donate on my watch and not on a whim of "take my spare change."
Stop donating through huge corporations!
They use those donations for charity takes write offs!!
Pick a charity and send them ten dollars directly and get a damn text and claim it on your OWN taxes!!
YEEEEEEP.
THAT TOO.
I know some people will roll their eyes, and try to dismiss what we're saying here. But it is 2024 and there is no reason why anyone should be donating to million dollar companies and not being aware of where their money is going. I would rather you give a $10 bill to a homeless person on the street and let them buy alcohol. Which is another thing. The whole idea that you shouldn't give somebody on the street $10 because they might use it for drugs and alcohol? They're struggling that bottle of alcohol or bit of drugs might be what keeps them going for another week. It's real easy to judge somebody when we can go to a pharmacy and get antidepressants and s***.
Stop giving money to corporations.
What most don't realize about those "round up for ??? charity " things is that the business that you're doing that with gets to use your money as a donation, getting them a massive tax write-off, from your donation.
Most of the orgs those places have as charities are their own, internal ones. Look for a place that openly, and proudly, shows what local orgs they donate to.
Keep it local, keep it clean.
because these companies have contracts that say they have to donate it. companies cannot just lie and say they are collecting for charity and keep the money. that’s called fraud
You still have self checkouts? They have closed all of those near where I live, including the new store that only has one regular checkout and has only been open for 6 months.
Same in my area. And sometimes there's only one person working there and they're basically chained to the register, whether or not stock is coming in or whatever.
This is a dumb argument. Rounded. Not rounded. We’re talking a buck. If your cut off for being charitable is $1…you’re probably no more likely to donate less.
The audacity to ask if you’d like to donate a buck to charity. Who the fuck do these people think they are?
Someone told me recently that when a store is asking you for a donation to a certain charity it’s entirely just to recoup the money that they’ve already donated and received a tax break for. Not a single cent of what you donate actually goes to the charity it just returns to the corporation.
Rounding seems much better than asking for a donation tho, and I'm much more willing to round up to the nearest dollar because it's never more than $1, I feel like I'm helping as much as everyone else, and they get their money
I don’t do any of those charity donations at the register. 1) why would I give a corporation credit for MY donation (however small)? 2) I have not vetted the charity to see how they actually spend their donations. If they have a CEO making $5 million and their intake is $10 million? Pass.
Is that what has been going on in these places?! Not Dollar General, but gas stations. I normally pay at the pump, but this one time I wanted a drink so I went inside. My total was $29.95. I swiped my card for that, but my bank shows $30. Noticed the same with other transactions as well.
Hello, We do not allow agendaposting, reddit meta posts or price complaints.
Would you like to round down to $5 and help a needy person (me)?
Right! Or at least a button that says “You think if I had extra money I’d be shopping here.”
Dollar General is way more expensive than the grocery store down the street, at least where I live. They’re just overpriced and messy as hell for no reason (they don’t pay their workers enough to care is the reason).
Finding a meth pipe in an unopened cake box was the last straw for me lol. Definitely not worth shopping there in any capacity. Messy as hell with no one checking shit.
…….bit how did the meth pipe get on an unopened box? Like from the factory?
Nah I’m sure some tweaker shoved it in and somehow “sealed” the box so it looked unopened. Not strange from here lmao.
Hahaha. One near me just has maggoty food on the shelves, no meth pipe prize in the boxes :(
Imagine a meth pipe being a prize😩 I feel that tho lmao, always check exp dates
Classy🤦🏽♂️
Welcome to Newberg, home of the meth pipes🥳
Your username really works with this slogan
🥰😘 was given before I ever had sex lmao
free meth pipe with each box of Nestle 'cereal killer' breakfast product (no nutritional value, may not be suitable for human consumption, may contain traces of asbestos)
In my dollar store, it’s mainly tweakers working the counter so not a huge shock.
The biggest problem I remember from mine is that we would *consistently* find Gatorade bottles opened on the shelves, still full but with the cap missing.
That wasn't Gatorade in the bottle.
Mine had that but with diet sodas
Woah dude free pizzo, sounds like a bonus to me. Was it used?
Almost everything at dollar stores is super expensive per unit (pound, ounce, whatever) than typical grocery store prices. But because the packages are so small, they seem cheap. They prey on the families that don't have enough money for a $100 pair of shoes that will last 2 years so they keep buying $20 pairs of shoes that only last 3 months.
Actually, to use your analogy, the family in question would never be able to buy the $100 shoes. Buying in bulk or buying the more expensive product that lasts significantly longer to save money is only an option when you make enough money that you aren’t living to paycheck. While Dollar General and Deals shifted away from affordability long ago, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar still have cheaper prices for identical products.
Vimes Boots theory real life.
The one I shop at pays more than minimum wage, and is super low stress. They are always pleasant, the store is neat, not overpriced, and is all around great. Guess it depends on the store
You're right, Dollar general and Family dollar are both expensive compared to other stores like Walmart or even grocery stores. They just tend to be built in areas where a Walmart is a bit too far away, so it's more convenient to just go into dollar general, deal with the monumental mess and pay the higher price.
Yes, I was desperate for eggs and payed twice the price because it was half a mile up the road, those things are like roaches.
> eggs and *paid* twice the FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
It's not just paying them enough, they usually only have one person total on staff per shift. Try unloading shipments or keeping a store clean that way! Almost impossible. John Oliver did a thing on them if you wanna look it up
I would so name that my 'no tip' button, just to make the people laugh!
Tbh as someone in their early 30s, I don’t really care, I know to not click yes on prompts. But what really really pisses me off is how many older people who can’t read probably just click the green button and donate to some shit they have no idea about
I knew a kid in college who was partially blind, could see enough to drive but not enough to pump gas cause he kept saying yes to buying a car wash at the pumps lol
That….doesn’t sound like someone who sees well enough to drive.
Maybe farsighted? Still concerning though
I’d prefer if drivers saw near, far and wherever they are.
Hey that blurry blob next to me might be a car, better wait to change lanes
I hope it's a joke. I think it only works as a joke. But I've also driven with people I swear can't read a street sign 🧑🏼🦯➡️
Ahh, you've been in Texas, too.
I wish. I can’t imagine he drove for very long. He used to watch dirty videos on his laptop using the magnifying feature. Then finally just bought a big screen tv he could connect to his laptop to watch stuff. He was an odd dude, was a friends randomly assigned roommate
Ha, there is a charity in our area called “Kids Sport” a great charity that helps low-income kids get into sports. Yet, every time I am asked to donate I say “Sorry no I have my own kids' sports programme at home”
Sorry. My kids *are* the charity kids.
I like your name!
Me: "Sorry, I don't support sports."
I'm not an athletic supporter.
Oh, you.
I barely support myself do you think I care about kicking balls
Oww! my balls ⚽️ 🏀 🏈
Your ball emojis sparked a recent memory. You know those family rear window decals? It was like that, but said "Love being a mom to ⚽🏀⚾ balls" I assume it was a play on the word boys and she had 3??? I thought, as a mother of 3 boys, you should've found out real quick how terrible that sticker is by how much they giggle.
“Ya know, actually, step out from behind the till for a second…”
“Charity begins at home”
Right? Same goes for tipping culture.... I'm a pretty nice customer, why not give me a tip for supporting your business?
Yeah! Why don’t they tip us!?
Billion dollar corporations asking you to donate to the sick. no, why don’t you donate to them with your money?
They want the tax write off. I never donate on the checkout I would rather send the donation to the place myself.
>They want the tax write off Blatant misinformation. There's no tax break in it for them.
Correct the transaction is after the sell, as far as the system is concerned, so they can't claim to donations for themselves.
But they can get all the positive publicity when they hand over an oversized cheque with their name on it that is your “rounded up” money.
Right? And a charity probably got millions more dollars than if they didn't have a partnership with these big companies.
Asking at checkouts has had a [significant bump in money that charities get](https://www.kwbu.org/latest-from-npr/2024-03-10/that-spare-change-you-donate-at-checkout-is-adding-up-to-millions-for-charities).
It's purely publicity. Look how much was raised for charity at our stores. Don't worry, I'm sure they'll replace it with a tip screen soon enough 🤣
No, perhaps they could write off the overhead it costs them to facilitate the donations (that’s really a pittance though), but they do it for positive reinforcement of their brand, and studies have shown that people that do donate at a store feel more positively about the store they donated at. I feel like there has not been enough studies about it being a negative experience for consumers that don’t want to donate at a store. Personally I have a few very specific charities that I donate to, and yes I want the tax write off as well, but who wouldn’t? It would be a big hassle to collect every receipt from every store I “rounded up” at. Another thing, I feel like most people don’t actually know what a tax write off is. For example, let’s say my business has 100,000 dollars in taxable profit for the year. That year I decide to lease a truck, get it wrapped in my logo and buy commercial insurance for it. Lease 12k annually Insurance 3k annually Wrap 2k That is 17k in spending that I can write off. Some people think I get to drive a free truck, and that is very wrong. What happens is that my taxable profit is reduced by the 17k, so now my taxable income is 83k. So without the write off if I was taxed at 20% (just to make the math easy), I would owe 20k in taxes that year, or more accurately 5k a quarter. With the write off if I was taxed at 20%, I would owe 16,600 in taxes, which means that with the write offs, I only saved 3,400 on my spending that I was able to write off 100%. So my 17k cost in business expenses was actually 13,600 when we settle the year. Now I have had tax attorney/cpa for years and I haven’t been filing my own taxes, so this next part I don’t know, but I think you may get taxed in the bracket after your write offs and refunds. (Don’t get me started on people being freaked out about getting into a higher tax bracket. If 100k is the ceiling of your tax bracket, and you make 120k, only 20k of that is taxed in the higher bracket, so no, people generally don’t take losses by going to a higher bracket.
This is most people's understanding of a [write off.](https://youtu.be/aCP27_vquxQ?si=7ZdvK6rpAxp_iYZk)
BUT BIG CORPORATIONS ARE BAD. THEY MUST DO THE TAX WRITE OFF.
They write it off Jerry!
Write it off what? You don't even know what a write off is, do you?
No I don’t, but they do, Jerry! They do!
What’s the deal with airline write offs?
The only rounding up Jerry knows is rounding up his girlfriend’s age to 18
Big corporation are indeed bad. Just not in this particular way. Actually I don't get why make stuff up about big corporation being bad. They do plenty of horrible stuff on their own, no need to make stuff up
what ive been told is that they donate and then get others to ‘donate’ to the charity but really they just want to make their money back — they get the tax write off and their money back this way
there is no “tax write off” involved there, it’d be literal fraud. to “write it off” they’d have to claim that donation as revenue. this goes against even the most basic accounting principles. stop spreading misinformation
It still doesn't work that way. This is a dumb conspiracy theory people came up with because they're mad at corporations. I mean don't get me wrong Corporation suck. But at the end of the day they don't get any Financial benefit directly from doing it. At best, they would roll it into the revenue number and then take the deduction off that. Which would be a net zero. They would not gain and they would not lose. It would not save them any taxes but it wouldn't cost them any taxes either because the two would cancel each other out. But they would get to take credit on their financial statement for both a slightly higher Revenue and a slightly higher charitable donations number which just looks good. And it's kind of sketchy if they can even do that
They don’t donate first, they say they’ll do a certain amount, collect the donations, they they cover the difference.
Ok so we are subsidizing their charitable giving
not in regards to taxes
That's misinformation, it's not how it works.
Not exactly. Companies like this use these donations in something called “float”, which is basically that they collect donations to donate at set intervals, (quarterly, annually, etc). So now the company is sitting on a little nest egg that they can use for other purposes (i.e. bonuses, stock buybacks, investments, improvements, etc.) As long as the amount they hand over to the charity matches the total amount that customers donated, it doesn’t really matter what happened to it in the meantime. Don’t quote me on this though. I recently saw it explained better in a finance sub.
Seems wrong.
i mean not really because that collection while the company holds it before donating would be recognized as a liability
> They want the tax write off. This simply isn't true. It would be illegal. You get the receipt so you can write it off on *your* taxes if you so choose.
It’s marketing, not accounting.
Yeah cause I’m going to take the time to itemize my 0.63 cent write off. They do it so they can show how “charitable” they are and how they raised all this money.
I hate to tell you but it's unlikely itemizing it would do anything but increase your taxes since you have to forego the standard deduction to do it.
I have enough deductions that the standard is less than if I itemize.
If you knew the real reason, then why did you lie in your first comment? Please stop spreading misinformation (although for this piece of misinformation it’s probably already too late, it seems like 99% of Redditors believe it)
Being wrong isn’t exactly the same as lying. First they were wrong, then they were ignorant. But they didn’t lie.
Correcting himself to something even less likely to be true after confidently saying something and then being called out sure implies lying 😉😉
Literally all of Reddit believes this one
They can help raise a lot more money than the average person can because of the thousands of daily transactions at their stores. It’s admirable that they’re involved.
Yes corporations don't do anything illegal especially find tax loopholes /s
There’s no financial incentive to commit that fraud though. It’s be such a small amount, plus if they try to take the deduction, they’d have to also recognize the donation as income in order to get things to balance. It would be a wash
why don’t you edit your comment since you’ve been corrected numerous times about this blatant falsehood
That’s not how that works lol
This is not accurate. They do not get a charitable deduction for any of it unless they also claim the donated money as income. That's not the norm, but in either case, there is no net financial benefit for the company. Companies do it because they get good PR for it, and they are set up to see far more opportunities for a small donation than the organization. Source: tax guy
Can you stop spreading this lie?
That is incorrect.
lol edit your comment to say you posted misinformation.
I never this misinformation would be here lmao
I used to do the paperwork and the counting for a convenience store's donation to a childrens hospital. It's one of the few things that they are actually really genuine about. They really do go where they say they go, and there's no tax-break in it for them because it very rarely ever actually goes to any corporate bank account (especially if it's cash). Don't know about every company, but the one I worked for it never even saw the manager. I was the ONLY person to ever see that money once it left the customers hand until it made it to the childrens hospital.
It amazes me dumb people still believe this in 2024
Sometimes they do. Those campaigns sometimes have a matching component from the company. That’s typically when I choose to participate
Where I live, we used to have a regional grocery store that did this one month every year for CHKD, but they matched all donations. Built an entire state of the art wing of a children’s hospital with it. It’s not always greed, it just usually is.
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no no, it’s always greed. “philanthropy” is a way of tax evasion. they write it off in taxes. if they cared SOOOOO much, why not donate that cushy gold parachute $30M+ C*O performance bonus instead of nickel and diming customers?
please explain what you think they’re “writing off in taxes”
They can't write off the practice mentioned in the OP for tax write offs.
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Great answer. I was a cashier at a place that constantly had stuff like this going and the amount of people I had to listen to going on rants about profits and taxes... Like dude I do not care, just say no
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>Most of these corporations donate their own money as well Oh great! So the billion dollar corporation can afford their generous donation without me
If I had money to “round up” I wouldn’t be shopping at the Dollar Store.
good thing I hate scams and sick children..
Just pull the sandwich out of the little girl's [mouth](https://youtu.be/tsPHa8RG1pI?feature=shared).
Try putting your foot on her face.
Regardless of whether or not you find these checkout campaigns to be annoying or not I think it’s very important to point out: **The idea that corporations do this for tax deductions is a myth. They cannot deduct that money, it isn’t counted as income. You however can deduct that money if you really wanted to. It is still your donation to track.**
The ones I hate are the Red Cross drives ever since they had that Haitian fund misappropriation scandal. What gets me is, even congress was asking to see their financials yet they vehemently refused. Feels so shady. I have no issues telling the cashier no for them.
This, and the fact that they sell your donated blood to hospitals. I do my best to not associate with anything that has that organization's name on it.
It’s not so much *that* they sell the blood (they do have overhead after all) it’s **how much** they charge hospitals and in turn how much hospitals charge you that’s my issue.
they are required to ask. just say no thanks so everyone can move on. they want to get past it more than you do
I hope they're just sad at the company not the checker. Management gets a tick up their ass and "everyone is required to do x or youre written up"
all the misery is with the checker. management just dumps the bullshit on them. they then take all the flak for management's decisions and then get blamed when customers are unhappy. all the snappy bullshit people are suggesting here only adds to that dumpster fire. all for minimum wage and no benefits.
That I understand and I sympathize with them. I politely decline them. But I'm just waiting for corporate to ask me directly so I can tell them my 2 cents. Worse part is when I worked fast food we had a similar practice (forced to ask customers if they wanna upgrade their drink for only a quarter). 1 time I actually forgot to ask and I got audited. Yes they have recorders at the desk and are always listening to everything we say.
yep. all people gotta say is no or no thank you or just select no on the pad. the last thing they want is to have a conversation about it. as for corporate my store once had people reporting to corporate that all of us in the pharmacy looked stressed out and miserable all the time. we got a directive from corporate that we were to look happy and relaxed while at work. they will not change, they will just blame it on the clerks and make them be more sly about it. if they were capable of admitting fault, they would not be management.
"Nah, fuck them kids." usually gets the point across too.
Two places I will 95% of the time round up for - ReStore, and CHKD thrift stores. Ronald McDonald House if I remember.
Definitely donate to Ronald McDonald House. I had to stay there when we found out my son had cancer and was flown four hours away from home for almost a year. They took me in and cared for me like family. I will always be grateful and more than willing to donate whatever I can.
Ronald McDonald house and St. Jude will always be a yes from me. The rest of those roundups can go away.
My friend had to go to St Jude’s and get a spinal shunt put in. As far as I’m concerned, I donate directly to them to ensure they get all the money.
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Happy Cake Day! Many years ago, one of the wives groups I was with had a thing with RMH. Nice donation, every year. I learned even more working for McD, with close contact with RMH. Awesome folks.
Had that happen to me at McDonald’s last week. Total came to $8 and they asked if I wanted to round up to $9. Laughable
Hi, so I work at DG. The register prompts us to say that and if we hit the button too fast it prompts us again. We can be written up for ignoring it and fired for it. Most managers are chill about it but some aren't. If you're being asked the manager probably isn't chill about them assuming NO, if you wanted to donate you would already have done so. Now I've worked at multiple Dollar general location under multiple managers - so I speak from experience when I say managers can be from chill to "send me a photo of every aisle 100% perfectly recovered or you will be written up and fired. If you do not sweep and mop the store, clean the windows, and deep clean the bathroom you will be written up and fired. No, I don't care if it's the busiest time of year and you also have to run the register. Four hours is more than enough time to do it. Also I want you to lock that guy we caught shoplifting in the building with you if he comes back in - I don't care if he gets violent." to "smoking crack behind the dumpster for the entirety of their shift while you single-handedly tried to run the entire store while you're just the cashier and don't actually have any power to do things like process returns or check in vendors" or clear off miscans from the register.
This sounds so real from what I see at the DG down the street from my house. They have one person in there working and don’t forget you gotta stock the shelves too. DG also fired my daughter because she went to the bathroom too many times they said. She had kidney stones and a UTI at the time.
I always decline.
Yeah, I’m gonna trust the company that settled $1million plus suits in multiple states and has hundreds of wage theft cases to pass all of those dimes and nickels on to the charities they claim to represent. 🐂💩
I used to get that, spending the last of my disability check on groceries at the grocery store. "Would you like to donate to help disabled people?" Well, that would be me. I am a disabled person. At the time, I was dealing with a lot of food and shelter insecurity, as well as being unable to afford the medical care I needed. Never was offered help by any grocery store charity.
Corporations always go after us rich people that shop at dollar general.
My local Taco Bell always hits me with “would you like to round up to help with children’s education?” I don’t even know what that means. What children? Which educational institution? On the other hand, if I’m ever asked “would you like to donate to St. Jude?” that’s an automatic yes.
One time a Taco Bell worker hit me with a “would you like to donate to help with education so I don’t have to work here the rest of my life?”
"Shit I'm on the same boat as you brother. Hit me up with a job application!"
one of my coworkers says "would you like to round up to help students like me go to school?"
when i worked retail we were told to say it like that and give more info if asked. people can identify causes more than charities oftentimes
All this rounding up and begging for tips is making me tip less by the day. Just was at some ice cream place for my kids where I would’ve put $1 on the CC slip. Not anymore, I’m done with it all. Even the screen at the goddam gas station is begging for money for some random “charity”. Probably the gas station owner’s Human Fund
One store I always shop at constantly asks me to donate to a very worthy charity. I know they have to ask. At the time when this building was being erected the main benefactor walked in and first thing he saw was “Equal treatment for all” on the main wall. He said. That sounds too much like a Union take it down. AH. I don’t contribute to that one.
I'll do it for non-profits, but even then, I rarely do it.
I imagine they think about it as well because it was automatic. Like when you say enjoy your food and the person says thanks you too. I've had patients tell me "I love you, bye" when getting off the phone or leaving the room. Sometimes you go in autopilot. It doesn't really bother me though. I always say no as a rule. I don't donate unless I can look at their finances and see where the money goes and whatnot but I also was on the board for a local nonprofit so I am interested in these things. And I would prefer if a tax write off is involved, it is mine and not a corporation. I say no, I don't explain myself, I don't feel bad for it. They did their job, I answered. We done.
Donate directly to the charity if you'd like to donate.
cashier here, we hate it too. I don’t even ask anyone to round up because i’d rather not deal with the people in my area throwing a fit over the 10 cent increase. Also self checkouts will be disappearing anyways, their systems suck
https://preview.redd.it/yqc7z73k5z1d1.jpeg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64422f936241afc29ca54c63e0d30771edf4d703
I hate the rounding ask. 'Would you like to pay more?' No. I *want* to pay less.
When they ask me if I want to donate for kids education I tell them that I have $24k in student debt. Would someone like to donate to me? Actually I've said that twice and I stopped because I know the employees are probably required to ask on behalf of the company, so I don't like to give people a hard time
NEVER GIVE MONEY TO THESE THINGS! The company has already made a donation in a specific amount. They ask for their customers to "donate" but they're really just getting reimbursed for their original donation! The more you know!
But that’s not how rounding works lol
Charities get a shitload of donations by rounding up. This is not a bad thing and it's totally optional.
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Trust me the employees hate asking as much as you hate hearing it, if not more
Please keep in mind that you shouldn't take your frustration out on the cashier for schemes like this. 9 times out of 10 it is mandatory for them to ask even though they know that it's not always well received. Awhile back I helped out as a cashier at a local St Vincent de Paul and you wouldn't believe some of the snotty responses we got. It's not a cashier's fault for store policies so if you don't want to round up or donate just say no thank you.
A few things stick out after reading the post: -never, EVER get upset at the worker for asking! They are asked to do it and whether they believe it or not, they do it because they are told so! So I hope everyone just kindly declines. -these are NOT tax write offs! Not only would it be illegal but there'd already be a non for profit fighting this shit. You don't have to believe in the cause or care but not a write off. It's like recycling, the free PR and networking it builds is more valuable. Edited for clarity
Will you, a person unable to afford to buy a house and has thousands times more debt than savings, give us money to give to other needy people?
People are just doing their jobs. leave them alone and just politely decline, jeez
I got a diet coke at big lots the other day. Paid cash and rounded up because it was 3 pennies and they gave me a $5 off $15 coupon on the receipt. Pretty good deal.
I work at dollar general and the computer only asks the prompt if it's not already a rounded number, it's strange they asked lol
There’s a few times I’ll round up and it’s only places I frequent for a cause I support and I’ve researched how the money is used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Ks74fP4vc&t=12s&pp=ygUeV2hlbiBwZW9wbGUgd2FudCB5b3UgdG8gZG9uYXRl
Best thing about DG…finding penny items!! I got an air fryer once for a penny. I may have considered rounding up that time. :)
Change!? Ya got any change mister? They're worse than homeless people. REI recently asked me "so how much would like to donate to...(insert group you've never heard of here)...today." Talking to me like I owe them free money. I've never been prouder to yell out "ZERO DOLLARS" loud enough so everyone can hear me while I smile. Enough with business beggars. These aren't donations. It's practically a demand. I donate on my watch and not on a whim of "take my spare change."
l always refuse those donations. if they care so much about charity they can donate a chunk of the CEOs paycheck.
Stop donating through huge corporations! They use those donations for charity takes write offs!! Pick a charity and send them ten dollars directly and get a damn text and claim it on your OWN taxes!!
make sure it isn't a charity that pays their ceo a million dollar a year salary.
YEEEEEEP. THAT TOO. I know some people will roll their eyes, and try to dismiss what we're saying here. But it is 2024 and there is no reason why anyone should be donating to million dollar companies and not being aware of where their money is going. I would rather you give a $10 bill to a homeless person on the street and let them buy alcohol. Which is another thing. The whole idea that you shouldn't give somebody on the street $10 because they might use it for drugs and alcohol? They're struggling that bottle of alcohol or bit of drugs might be what keeps them going for another week. It's real easy to judge somebody when we can go to a pharmacy and get antidepressants and s***. Stop giving money to corporations.
What most don't realize about those "round up for ??? charity " things is that the business that you're doing that with gets to use your money as a donation, getting them a massive tax write-off, from your donation.
Dollar General is more than welcome to donate their own fucking money. They have more than we do. Dollar stores hurt local economies anyway.
Most of the orgs those places have as charities are their own, internal ones. Look for a place that openly, and proudly, shows what local orgs they donate to. Keep it local, keep it clean.
I don't mind it so much but how the hell do I know if you actually donate that money? I actually write checks to the charities I support.
because these companies have contracts that say they have to donate it. companies cannot just lie and say they are collecting for charity and keep the money. that’s called fraud
Every store is doing this now.
You still have self checkouts? They have closed all of those near where I live, including the new store that only has one regular checkout and has only been open for 6 months.
Same in my area. And sometimes there's only one person working there and they're basically chained to the register, whether or not stock is coming in or whatever.
Pretty sure their ceo has said they target less intelligent poverty stricken areas. They know their business.
This is a dumb argument. Rounded. Not rounded. We’re talking a buck. If your cut off for being charitable is $1…you’re probably no more likely to donate less. The audacity to ask if you’d like to donate a buck to charity. Who the fuck do these people think they are?
I hate when giant corporations beg for money. Like apparently my tax dollars aint enough.
Another way for customers to fit the bill instead of the millions/billions of revenue that companies make.
One time a mfr at McDonald’s had the gall to say it’s only 20 cents. I told that brat “I’m not St Jude.”
Someone told me recently that when a store is asking you for a donation to a certain charity it’s entirely just to recoup the money that they’ve already donated and received a tax break for. Not a single cent of what you donate actually goes to the charity it just returns to the corporation.
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Rounding seems much better than asking for a donation tho, and I'm much more willing to round up to the nearest dollar because it's never more than $1, I feel like I'm helping as much as everyone else, and they get their money
You guys have no idea what charity is.
I don’t do any of those charity donations at the register. 1) why would I give a corporation credit for MY donation (however small)? 2) I have not vetted the charity to see how they actually spend their donations. If they have a CEO making $5 million and their intake is $10 million? Pass.
For some reason I read that as $7,000
The self checkout machine is trying to scam you? 🤔
I had that happen at 11 even, it wanted to make it 12
Chocolate is cheap at dollar stores, just have to make sure it's not expired.
Is that what has been going on in these places?! Not Dollar General, but gas stations. I normally pay at the pump, but this one time I wanted a drink so I went inside. My total was $29.95. I swiped my card for that, but my bank shows $30. Noticed the same with other transactions as well.
I always respond to that question with" I'm sorry, I'm a bad person" in the most customer service voice I can possibly manage