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B&N sells books. I judge them on that basis. If they did a good job selecting appropriate books to recommend for the occasion, then I think they did fine. If they used the occasion to try to dump some slow movers with military themes on their customers, I wouldn't approve. But that's my personal bias - what I really should do is ignore their message, and their competition's message, and focus on what I want - which is at odds with what any of them want.
On the donation or sale that they might or might not offer for holidays: it depends on their business model. Many companies plan on everyday high prices and planned significant sales (that remain profitable), since sales appeal to many buyers. Some companies arrange very visible charitable donations part of their corporate appeal to certain customers. Some don't deal much in any of those. These are all marketing exercises.
It seems important to me for consumers to understand that all of these approaches are equally business (profit) oriented. Each business judges what appeals to its customers it wants to make and keep, in search of becoming a bigger, more profitable company.
Frankly, I appreciate a company who does not try to steer my dollars towards charities it presumes to select (the "why don't they donate to some worthwhile cause?" question). It wouldn't be their money they would be sending off, it would be mine and yours. I prefer to make my own choices.
Neither do I think having a sale is in any way honoring a cause. "That is/was important, so we will not charge our customers quite so much on a few items for a few days..." What is that? It makes no sense, except superficially as an advertising campaign - which is exactly what it is.
Every seller, of books or bacon, poetry or promises, wants to keep what they have and take what you have. Anything you hear or see from them is what they generate to make it happen in the way they have carefully chosen. And that's all it is.
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