How to survive a walk down ‘chugger alley’
The term ‘chugger’ has been coined for a charity mugger, someone who tries to stop you in the street and sign you up to a particular charity. You’ll find a fuller – and less kind – description – here.
Now I’m fine about contributing to charities. I support many on an ongoing basis. But I like to choose the charities I fund in the privacy of my own home. I really dislike a stranger in a street trying to sign me up for a charity and this happens a lot in central London.
In fact, usually, these chuggers work in groups, often in a busy street, so that walking that route becomes something of an obstacle course.
One of the worst streets in London for his phenomenon is Villiers Street – what I call ‘chugger alley’ – which is narrow and has tube station entrances at either end, so that it is often the haunt of a chugger team.
I have two techniques – seemingly contradictory – for avoiding them.
- On entering the scene where I believe chuggers might be operating, I look way ahead to spot them. Usually they wear coloured shirts and carry clip boards, so they’re not hard to identify.
- As I approach each chugger, I skirt around them as far as possible and, since they sometimes attempt to call out and engage in conversation anyway, I stare at the ground and pretend that I have heard nothing.
Have you ever experienced chugging?
May 21st, 2014 at 11:03 am
I experience ‘chugging’ on a regular basis in Harrow town centre. It can be stressful while you’re out walking around the shops. My technique is to walk along as normal without stopping while replying to say that I wish them a nice day!
May 21st, 2014 at 11:23 pm
I made the mistake of engaging with one of these people some years ago. But he made the bigger mistake – when I said I’d have to ask my husband about signing up, he said “Oh, so you’d have to ask your husband if you wanted to buy a cup of coffee?” I actually can’t remember what happened next, the shock was so great. Did I just walk away? Or was there some yelling?
At that point I naively had not realised these were not volunteers for the charity but paid collectors. Now I have no sympathy and do not feel bad about staring right past as I walk purposefully by.
On the news last night was a disturbing story about some agents working for fundraising companies (contracted by two charities), who went, allegedly unauthorised, to a poor community in the north of Australia, signing up residents who did not understand, to ongoing donations. The charities have stepped in to rectify the situation, but the fundraising companies are now being investigated by the Office for Fair Trading.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/23709628/charity-fundraisers-in-north-queensland-town-of-yarrabah-accused-of-signing-up-people-to-payments-they-cannot-afford/