Whole Foods Market says it is offering free shipping on its holiday gift boxes to soldiers deployed overseas. Sears--already a big military supporter through its Heroes at Home program--recently
launched a "Baking for the Troops" program to send cookies to military personnel. And longtime supporters--like Pitney Bowes, with the Holiday Mail for Heroes it sponsors through the American Red
Cross--are ratcheting up their efforts.
To a degree, soldier-supporting causes have become holiday perennials, along with food drives and red-kettle giving. But some experts think we may be
seeing a little spike in cause efforts focused on service members and their families. "In these tough economic times, the number and diversity of holiday giving campaigns at retail continues to
expand, as does competition for prime store real estate," David Hessekiel, president of Cause Marketing Forum, tells Marketing Daily. "The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been going on for so
long that supporting the troops--and groups that support the troops--has matured from being a "crisis reaction" cause. I expect this and other patriotic causes to grow even more next year -- the 10th
anniversary of September 11."