Check out the idiocy at my local grocery store

I was picking a few items up at the grocery store earlier and as always they are promoting some charitable cause, which is fine. Last week it was hungry children... this week it's diabetes research. Basically, the cashier asks if you would like to donate a buck or two to the cause. As I said, this week it's diabetes research, and here is how they are promoting it....



Here's how I read this... "If your cashier doesn't ask you to donate, we'll give you a free 2 liter of Aspartame!!!" I asked the cashier if this was someone's idea of a joke, and he couldn't understand why I would ask that. Diet Soda is no better for you than regular soda, I would argue that in many ways it's actually worse, and soda is probably one of the reasons so many people have diabetes in the first place. Anyway, I just wanted to share this absurdity with others.


Artificial Sweetners may be worse than sugar for Diabetics

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


Are you freakin kidding me? Not only do you give the best example in your OP, but isn't asking people for money when they are already spending money in your establishment kinda like driving away business? Remember the companies that pushed extended warranties?

Not to mention, how they don't realize how employee moral will drop, because they are being forced to piss people off.

But yea, give someone something filled with what causes the disease while promoting a cure for it! WTF?

Diet Soda are two words there ought to be n actual law against putting together. It's an oxymoron if I ever heard one.

So you're encouraged to rot your teeth and fatten up on phony sugar instead of the real thing in what is still just carbonated sugar water. All for the benefit of a Diabetes cause? Yeah.. I'd ask them if it was a joke too. A warped one, at that. Ugh....

They probably give free cigarettes to people who don`t donate to cancer research.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime




Free 2 liter?

So IF your Cashier doesn't ask you for a donation... You are free to leave your empty 2 Litre bottles lying around the store...?

Now that's motivation!!

Sorry I couldn't help myself...

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


Dude,

Strong work. You are right, that's one of the stupidest things I have ever seen.

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by OptimusSubprime

 

Are you freakin kidding me? Not only do you give the best example in your OP, but isn't asking people for money when they are already spending money in your establishment kinda like driving away business? Remember the companies that pushed extended warranties?

Not to mention, how they don't realize how employee moral will drop, because they are being forced to piss people off.

But yea, give someone something filled with what causes the disease while promoting a cure for it! WTF?

Ah yes, asking to donate to something. Too many are burdened by this especially when a simple "no" is just to hard to spit out sometimes, given that we communicate more with our iPhones than we do our vocal chords today.

And the site linked in the OP:

Not surprisingly, the medical establishment sees things differently. Some researchers and doctors say that Mercola steers patients away from proven treatments and peddles pseudoscientific misinformation on topics such as flu shots and fluoridation. In their view, he is resurrecting old myths, such as the threat posed by mercury in dental fillings, and promoting new ones, such as the notion that microwave ovens emit harmful radiation. “The information he’s putting out to the public is extremely misleading and potentially very dangerous,” opines Dr. Stephen Barrett, who runs the medical watchdog site Quackwatch.org. “He exaggerates the risks and potential dangers of legitimate science-based medical care, and he promotes a lot of unsubstantiated ideas and sells [certain] products with claims that are misleading.”

Some of the articles on Mercola’s site, Barrett and others say, seem to be as much about selling the wide array of products offered there—from Melatonin Sleep Support Spray ($21.94 for three 0.85-ounce bottles) to Organic Sea Buckthorn Anti-Aging Serum ($22 for one ounce)—as about trying to inform. (Your tampon “may be a ticking time bomb,” he tells site visitors—but you can buy his “worry-free” organic cotton tampons for the discounted price of $7.99 for 16.) Steven Salzberg, a prominent biologist, professor, and researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, calls Mercola “the 21st-century equivalent of a snake-oil salesman.”

www.chicagomag.com...

All hail the good doctor... Who surely isn't in it for money.

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by OptimusSubprime

 

Are you freakin kidding me? Not only do you give the best example in your OP, but isn't asking people for money when they are already spending money in your establishment kinda like driving away business? Remember the companies that pushed extended warranties?

Not to mention, how they don't realize how employee moral will drop, because they are being forced to piss people off.

But yea, give someone something filled with what causes the disease while promoting a cure for it! WTF?

I've noticed more and more stores are doing this. Every time I go to check out I'm asked to donate to a cause. Don't get me wrong, because I'm all about charity, but it gets annoying, and it kind of forces you to at least give a dollar when there are other people in line behind you because you will look like a selfish jerk if you say no.

Could have been worse...could have been a free candy bar.

Originally posted by Akragon
reply to post by OptimusSubprime

 

Free 2 liter?

So IF your Cashier doesn't ask you for a donation... You are free to leave your empty 2 Litre bottles lying around the store...?

Now that's motivation!!

Sorry I couldn't help myself...

You mean litter?

Litre is common English spelling, Liter is Americanised.

I bet it's a management joke to imply that if our cashiers don't ask for a donation, then you will remember it because we're giving you diabetes.

then again, most likely not.

reply to post by boncho


Enjoy the chance to mock "the good doctor" and his marketing. God knows he should go broke for questioning big pharma's own, much more successful, marketing.

I will merely out that the USA allows 5 times as much radiation to leak from a domestic microwave oven, as does the EU or other developed countries.

US-style microwave ovens are illegal in most countries....

Originally posted by tovenar
reply to post by boncho

 

Enjoy the chance to mock "the good doctor" and his marketing. God knows he should go broke for questioning big pharma's own, much more successful, marketing.

I will merely out that the USA allows 5 times as much radiation to leak from a domestic microwave oven, as does the EU or other developed countries.

US-style microwave ovens are illegal in most countries....

Source?

reply to post by boncho


They aren't "banned" in Europe...but like all electronics, regulated. Remember that the US is on a different power voltage than most of the world also, so of course there are differences.

As for sources:

skeptoid.com...

Originally posted by Gazrok
reply to post by boncho

 

They aren't "banned" in Europe...but like all electronics, regulated. Remember that the US is on a different power voltage than most of the world also, so of course there are differences.

As for sources:

skeptoid.com...

Thank you Gazrok.

That is the clarifications I like to see.