A friend of mine works for a popular pharmacy chain that decided to participate in a new fundraiser. First of all, charitable organizations are a duel edged sword. Even if a cause is totally legit, I’m still skeptical. Imagine that, eh? What amount of the money donated is actually going to the recipients who need the funds rather than administrative fees?
shot in the … arm
Case in point – flu shots. Let me rephrase that – fucking flu shots. It’s been established over and over how much I hate flu shots. Every pharmacist I know curses the damn things. However, once I learned what a crock of shit the ‘get a shot, give a shot‘ promotion truly was, my hate escalated. Escalated hate in any situation is bad – especially retail. (Though inflicting pain on happy, delusional people with a sharp needle does help. Somewhat.) According to the chain website, only $0.22 per shot is eventually donated. Retail price for the vaccine is $31.99. That’s not even 1%. It’s frightening how corporate marketing can manipulate verbiage.
Before I continue, let me qualify something. I know nothing about charitable organizations and the governmental parameters that dictate what and how much can be donated. That shot promotion campaign is undoubtedly within guidelines. If it stated something different like – every shot given will help fund vaccinations in under developed nations – my anger would be curbed. Not as much as the joy inflicting pain provides. Still, … .
what’s UP with that*
Funny thing happened to a friend of mine – let’s call her Kimmie – a few years ago. Here in Traverse there is a local organization that is funded by donations from the community. One facet of this Foundation helps people pay for prescriptions if the recipient can’t afford the medication. Kimmie talked with a man who stated this service was going to pay for his prescription. All he needed was to communicate to the representative the price of the medication. Kimmie was upset about this inappropriate allocation of charitable funds. Yet, she had to comply. When the representative called, inquiring about the total price, Kimmie challenged the logic behind payment. The volunteer stated that the Foundation “didn’t pass judgement.” The prescription was for Viagra. When other people’s money is being spent, executive decisions need to be made. That is NOT judgement.
*pun totally intended
celestial rivalry
Back to the incident that started this whole rant. The new promotion at this retail company mandated that every time a vitamin product was sold, 1 % of that sale would go toward providing “life-changing vitamins to undernourished children around the world and here at home“. Here’s the best part – each store was provided a greeting card that employees could sign to send to a randomly selected child. The promotion is called Vitamin Angel.
Thankfully, I’ve already ranted enough. To wrap my brain around this ‘gesture’ is too much for me to put into words. Instead, I laughed. And instantly thought of an ex-technician. She once told a customer that the reason her prescription wasn’t done was because the Prescription Fairy was off duty.
Red Nose anyone?
