Free Hugs at Target!

Well, maybe just my Target.

Yesterday, I was walking out of Target and noticed the sign that said something to the effect that Target doesn't allow solicitors in front of their stores regardless of the cause. I like this. I'm sure most customers like this. I cannot stand to go to the grocery store when kids are selling cookies or old men in white suits are collecting change in a tin can. I do, however, give a free pass to the Salvation Army folks at Christmas, because they generally just ring their bell and don't actually solicit/elicit a response from me.

So right, the sign, no solicitors.

It just so happens that the very next day, I'm at Target again (hey, it's right by the office, I'm on my lunch break, I can't eat lunch at home anymore, I have time to kill) and what do I see? Solicitors.

Two of them.

One is holding a sign that says "FREE HUGS" while the other guy is holding a sign that says "HUGS: $10." As I approach I think to myself "there's no avoiding this" so I didn't even try. "You want a free hug or do you want to pay this guy $10?"

"I'll hug ya on the way out, man."

So on my way out... crap. He's still there. The $10 hugger left. Apparently, he cut his rate to $5 and still had no takers and just decided to give up and leave. I don't buy this story, because I was only in Target to drop off a prescription and this couldn't have gone down that fast. Regardless. I hugged the guy. Or he hugged me. I'm not really sure. All I know is that a random hugging occurred outside Target.

So to make this less weird, there was a film crew across the way filming what was going on. As in, this wasn't some pedophile who just wanted to hug little kids with unsuspecting mothers, or twentysomething accountants on their lunch breaks.

As I was sitting in my car in the parking lot, eating my sangwich, reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelityand waiting for my prescription to be filled, I decided that I'd had enough hugs from strangers for the day, and I'd go back tomorrow to pick it up.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this was for some piece a local church was shooting related to an upcoming message to be shown during the service. I'd even go further and say it was for my church. They would do something like that. Cause, really, who else would do something like that?

Who doesn't like a hug, right? But in the end, I'm a little upset because Target allowed this shenanigan (that's exactly what it was) to go on a few yards away from signage that expressly prohibits it.

It's only a matter of time before little Suzie Q and Johnny Boy Scout are peddling their mint chocolate chip cookies outside my local Target. And then, pffft, I might as well just go back to shopping at Wal-Mart. At least I expect it there. Along with low prices.