Secret Santa Shown the Door

The phones on the Wakeup Club were definitely lit up like a Christmas tree when we gave the news about a Secret Santa in Walmart at Lisbon Landing. The unemployed man was shown the door when he attempted to give out $1300 worth of $10 Walmart gift cards he had just bought inside that same store. Apparently he never got his idea of good will toward men approved in advance by Walmart. Whoever told him to take his generosity outside was obviously mindful of liability in the wake of a tragic trampling incident at a Long Island Walmart on Black Friday. Store management certainly deserved to be in the loop about his intentions - good as they were. They treated him like a solicitor, but he wasn't soliciting anything. We may have had the famous "failure to communicate" for things to go this way, but Walmart also could have made this right. Target offered to let him give away Target cards in one of their stores. Walmart should have stepped up and made this appearance that "we're big enough to play by our own rules" into "we're going to make this right." Hey, I shop at Walmart myself and the company can weather some bad press, but this negative publicity in our community is just totally unnecessary. Step up to the plate, big guys!