You know that moment at the register when the cashier asks if you'd like to round up for charity? Turns out that well-intentioned request might be doing more harm than good for the retailer asking.
New research published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services suggests that charitable donation requests at cash registers could actually create negative feelings toward businesses and potentially damage their bottom line. The culprit? Anxiety and time pressure.
According to the University of Adelaide Business School study, these requests hit customers at the worst possible moment—right at the end of checkout when they're already trying to wrap things up and other people are waiting in line behind them. That time crunch transforms what should be a feel-good moment into something that feels, well, intrusive.
When Doing Good Feels Bad
The consequences aren't trivial. The study found that the perceived time rush can lead to "reduced satisfaction, lower purchase intentions, and negative brand evaluations." In other words, asking someone to donate $2 might cost you a lot more than that in lost business.
Here's the irony: checkout charity campaigns have been wildly successful at actually raising money. More than $275 million was raised for charitable organizations across 92 checkout charity campaigns in 2024 alone. Domino's Pizza (DPZ) has raised more than $126 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital over the past two decades and plans to donate another $174 million over the next decade.
So the money is flowing. But the feelings? Not so much.
Researchers describe the phenomenon as "doing good but feeling bad." Normally, charitable giving triggers what's known as "warm glow"—that positive feeling you get from helping others. But when you're making split-second decisions under pressure with people watching, that warm glow gets replaced by anxiety. Shoppers also express skepticism about certain charitable causes, partly because they lack information about how their donations will actually be used.
A Better Way Forward
The good news is that retailers don't have to abandon checkout charity entirely. They just need to be smarter about how they ask.
The study recommends educating shoppers about ongoing charity campaigns earlier in the shopping process rather than springing it on them at checkout. Another option: integrate donation requests into tablets or screens instead of having cashiers make verbal requests. Digital prompts remove the social pressure of saying no to a real person while other customers are watching.
Retailers should also work harder to foster that warm glow feeling. The study suggests using "emotionally-resonant storytelling" to help customers connect with the cause. And transparency matters—brands should be upfront about how donations are used. Currently, only 44% of brands share fundraising results with their customers, according to the research.
The bottom line? Checkout charity isn't inherently bad, but the execution matters enormously. When done right, it can raise serious money for good causes. When done wrong, it creates anxious customers who might think twice about shopping with you again. That's a trade-off worth thinking carefully about—preferably without anyone waiting in line behind you.
