My grocery store is incentivizing 2+ shots at once with coupons
Chicago-area grocery stores and pharmacies have aggressively promoted the flu shot for many years — and did the same thing for the COVID shot.
Tonight I saw a new low: get the flu shot plus one other shot and get $20 in groceries.
Per the website, the more shots you & your family receive, the more free groceries you get.
Fun Fact: This is the same chain that denied me grocery purchase in September 2020 for refusing to wear a mask.
The “free flu shot and 10% off” at different chain is bad too but “more shots, more savings” is even worse.
I’ll admit the pre-2020 version of me didn’t really pay attention to or think about these tactics. The 2024 version is disgusted by these gambits and finds them incredibly desperate, coercive, and unethical. While people of all income levels appreciate saving money on groceries, these programs are obviously predatory of lower-income and elderly populations. There is also very little chance the store takes pains to fully apprise recipients of the risks of the shots the pharmacist is dispensing.
Such rackets aren’t exclusive to Illinois; other U.S. states are using these strategies too.
I can’t speak to what’s going on outside of the U.S. but I personally know missionaries who were in countries in 2021 and 2022 where the COVID shot was required for grocery store entry. So let’s not pretend using grocery stores for psychological priming and product placement is some kind of accident or isn’t heading somewhere evil in the minds of those who want to see and are still working toward a seasonal One Shot to Rule Them All.
Besides laughing out loud at anyone trying to be the Boss of Your Bodily Autonomy/Integrity, the best defense against any future command from a private business or government agency to cover your face or get a certain medical treatment as a condition of entry or participation is resolving NOW to say “NO”.
Including when it means saying no to free groceries.
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