Doing good but feeling bad: How checkout donation requests might backfire for retailers by eliciting negative emotional and cognitive consumer response

Checkout donation requests are increasingly common and are generally considered beneficial for both charities and retailers. In a novel contribution, we investigate potential negative effects of such requests and how they may backfire on retailers. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework, we explore consumers’ emotional (feeling of anxiety) and cognitive (perceived intrusiveness) responses to checkout donation requests, and the subsequent effects on both donation outcomes (donation intention) and retailer-relevant non-donation outcomes (checkout satisfaction, attitude towards retailer, repurchase intention). We focus on perceived time and social pressure as triggers of negative responses and test whether donation-related warm glow and checkout charity skepticism mediate those associations. Analyzing survey data from U.S. consumers (N = 329) using partial least squares structural equation modeling demonstrates that time pressure and social pressure are associated with negative consumer responses. Anxiety reduces donation intentions via diminished warm glow and may also link to lower checkout satisfaction through warm glow. In contrast, perceived intrusiveness may be associated with donation intentions and checkout satisfaction through increased skepticism. Perceived intrusiveness influences outcomes for retailers primarily through increased skepticism rather than warm glow. These findings suggest that retailers should prioritize minimizing consumer skepticism when designing checkout donation requests to avoid potential backfire effects on both donations and customer experience. We contribute to theory by identifying antecedents of negative consumer responses and explain how they may harm retailers through dual affective and cognitive mechanisms, providing guidance for more effective checkout charity campaigns. • Highlights consumer–retailer tension in checkout donation settings. • Identifies key contextual triggers of consumer negative responses. • Negative consumer responses reduce donations and harm retailer evaluations. • Examines consumer's responses from emotional and cognitive perspectives. • Offers insights for retailers to design more effective donation campaigns.