Although donation requests at checkout have become commonplace, much remains to be learned about the store-level factors that impact shoppers’ donation behaviors. This research, in part, fills this gap by studying the relationship between superior retail service and shoppers’ willingness to donate at checkout. Drawing from social exchange theory, we hypothesize and show that shoppers who believe that they experienced superior service are grateful to retailers and reciprocate their gratitude by being more willing to donate at checkout than are other shoppers. We also identify two important boundary conditions by showing that the impact of superior service is weakened significantly when shoppers doubt the authenticity of the superior service or when they are asked to donate to victims of tragedies (e.g., a mass shooting).

Introduction

‘Tis the season of giving. Although giving and charitable behaviors are traditionally associated with the holiday season, retailers such as Lowe’s and T.J. Maxx are challenging this norm by requesting donations throughout the year from shoppers at checkout (hereafter referred to as “charity at checkout”). As a result of these initiatives, American shoppers have donated more than $3 billion at checkout over the past thirty years (Engage for Good, 2016). Although this statistic appears to tout the success of charity at checkout, a more comprehensive analysis of the American retail market suggests that this $3 billion is a “drop in the bucket.” Given that 57 million shoppers made in-store purchases over the past thirty years, each shopper donated about $52 at checkout over this period or a mere $1.73 annually (The US Census Bureau, 2015). All things considered, this means that the shoppers’ donations at checkout are rather trivial.