After a group of its volunteers was shooed away from the store on Tecumseh Rd. E, Wal-Mart has assured the Windsor Goodfellows they will be welcome in the future.
Volunteers with the agency's annual newspaper drive were not welcome last week when they started collecting donations in the store's parking lot. An employee asked them to leave, but after two phone conversations Monday morning, Drive Chair Bruce Tait is confident it will not happen again. He says it was a misunderstanding on the store's part.
The team captain said she had tried to contact Wal-Mart ahead of time, but received no reply. Since the group had worked in the parking lot in years past, it assumed there would be no problem this year. However, a store employee told the team since the Salvation Army first booked its campaign, it would have to leave.
"As far as [the Wal-Mart's spokesperson was] concerned, the parking lot was fine. They had the Salvation Army inside [the store], but we don't go inside," says Tait.
He says the spokesperson confirmed Wal-Mart's support for charity drives and reassured Tait volunteers would be welcome back next year.
"It won't happen again. We've been advised this will be straightened out," he says. "They gave us instructions; who to call to set it up."
Tait cannot be sure if the controversy has affected the campaign's fundraising efforts. He says the Windsor Goodfellows will not likely know until Friday how much this year's campaign raised.
