Sam's Club Gives Out Candy In Prescription Pill Bottles....Right or Wrong????

[NastyEllEssWon]

http://www.parentdish.com/2009/06/30/sams-club-gives-kids-candy-in-pill-bottles/?icid=main|main|dl2|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentd ish.com%2F2009%2F06%2F30%2Fsams-club-gives-kids-candy-in-pill-bottles%2F





Competition in the pharmacy business must be pretty tough these days. In order to get your business, pharmacies have begin promoting themselves like never before. These efforts to lure customers are not always met with approval. Like when some pharmacy chains started giving away free antibiotics and insinuating that the drug could be used to help fight cold and flu viruses. Experts worried that this type of promotion might send consumers the wrong message about the proper use of antibiotics.

If experts are worried about pharmacies handing out prescription drugs like candy, I wonder how they would feel about a pharmacy that hands out candy like prescription drugs. That is exactly what a Sam's Club pharmacy in Salisbury, Maryland was doing last week.

Sams' Club is a membership store and has a checkpoint at the entry where shoppers must show their identification before entering. But at this particular store, employees weren't just checking member cards, they were also promoting the in-store pharmacy by giving children prescription medicine bottles filled with candy.

That's right, they stuffed Tootsie Rolls and Dots into real prescription bottles with real prescription labels and handed them out to children. I think this takes the prize for sending the wrong message about prescription medication.

After complaints about the promotion, Sam's Club dropped it and issued an apology. Deeming it an "isolated incident," Sam's Club Corporate Communications Manager Susan Koehler promised it would never happen again.

It would seem that this was a case of a rogue pharmacy department trying to be clever without corporate approval. But does it really take a degree in marketing communications to recognize the sheer stupidity of this idea?



I think its disgusting and outrageous that they did this....how do you guys feel....do you think this was a little too much or do you think its no big deal?

[LTb1ow]

Eh. Gotta make ends meet.

[sweetbmxrider]

http://therestlessmouse.com/ProdGal/0101.jpg

[NastyEllEssWon]

i was actually looking for some valid opinions here.... :nod:

[LTb1ow]

What, my opinion is not valid?

[BurninrubberGT]

half the people that took them probably said they felt better

[NastyEllEssWon]

well i was looking more towards some type of reasoning behind your vote :nod:

[LTb1ow]

I honestly do not see the big deal...

[NastyEllEssWon]

well the problem is that we teach children not to use prescriptions or touch mommy or daddys medicine....then go ahead and give them candy in the same bottles....kind of undermines parenting and can get kind of dangerous



i guess you have to have kids to understand??? :?:

[LTb1ow]

Eh, I think your looking to deep into it... Ever go to a dentist or any other doctor? They always push random stuff on you, tooth brushes, pens, pads etc, labeled with their stuff..

Just sticking candy in a medicine bottle won't make some kid down a bottle of perks when he gets home... Although I don't have kids so I wouldn't know... I guess maybe kids are dumb?

[Teds89IROC]

half the people that took them probably said they felt better


placebo :lol: :rofl:

[wretched73]

If parents took more responsibility for what their children do there wouldn't be stupid problems like this

[Tru2Chevy]

i guess you have to have kids to understand??? :?:

Yea, maybe.

I'm with you on this one, while I wouldn't hold Sam's Club responsible if they gave my son candy in a prescription bottle and he turned into a prescription drug addict someday, I certainly don't think it's a good idea.

- Justin

[WildBillyT]

well the problem is that we teach children not to use prescriptions or touch mommy or daddys medicine....then go ahead and give them candy in the same bottles....kind of undermines parenting and can get kind of dangerous



i guess you have to have kids to understand??? :?:

No kids, but I agree 100%. Why even imply that the stuff coming out of the bottles is candy? Why do anything to make the prescription drug abuse problem any worse?

[Frosty]

Horrible idea. Yes, at the end of the day parents are responsible for what goes on in their household and what their kids do but what if the parent accidentally leaves that pill bottle out and the kid sees candy in it? What if they happen to get into the cabinet and think the REAL drugs are candy?

Obviously the drugs should be locked up but IMO it has the potential to teach kids that RX drugs are candy.

...and no I don't have kids and never plan on having them.

[baddest434]

Why even imply that the stuff coming out of the bottles is candy?

Horrible idea. Yes, at the end of the day parents are responsible for what goes on in their household and what their kids do but what if the parent accidentally leaves that pill bottle out and the kid sees candy in it? What if they happen to get into the cabinet and think the REAL drugs are candy?



these2 replies pretty much sum it up! i agree with both.

[Jersey Mike]

In this case, I don't think it was right. However, I believe that the placebo effect has a lot to do with modern medicine. It's a good way of *slowly* weaning people off certain medications.

[BonzoHansen]

Poor choice by a local store manager. Move on.

[sweetbmxrider]

its the parent's responsibility to teach and care for their children. some people have obviously been failing on the don't take candy from a stranger saying.

[WildBillyT]

its the parent's responsibility to teach and care for their children. some people have obviously been failing on the don't take candy from a stranger saying.

Yes, but why make that job harder?

[LTb1ow]

Whats life without challenges?

:)

[Frosty]

its the parent's responsibility to teach and care for their children. some people have obviously been failing on the don't take candy from a stranger saying.

...so I shouldn't have taken that candy from the guy in the van that said "free candy" on it? Damn it!!!

[sweetbmxrider]

Yes, but why make that job harder?

i do agree it was illogical to give kids rx containers with candy but i have to at least hope the parents weren't letting the kids get to it before they checked it out. you can't prevent everything but it seems like this could easily be avoided. it may have been too and enough complaints were received to stop the "promo". i just don't have that much faith in the world anymore.

[btownws6]

yea i don't like this at all it's stupid and does in a way mess with kids heads to think well it looks the same y not to the kid that doesn't kno any better but it's the parents responsibility to teach them what's right and wrong

[Tsar]

No big deal. I see it as a responsibility of the parent/adult to teach their children what's good/bad right and wrong; instead of blaming outside influences.

[Knipps]

You can try and teach your kids all you like, parents don't always hold the most influence over their kids.

[Tsar]

You can try and teach your kids all you like, parents don't always hold the most influence over their kids.that's because most of those parents try to be friends with their kid, instead of being an actual parent. Either way if one breeds they are responsible for the offsprings not joe the manager.

[ShitOnWheels]

Disclaimer: I don't have kids...yet. I have worked with children infant through adulthood for the past 10 years in some capacity, so I know how they think.

I don't think it's as big of a deal as some are making it out to be. It wasn't the best thing they could have done, but definitely not the worst. There are a billion fake things that look like the real thing that kids see, play with, or otherwise use every day: toy guns, novelty candy that look like cigarettes, pretzels that kids pretend are cigarettes, hell, even action figures (like wrestling figures that depict different moves). No one is up in arms about those. What about those little motorized cars for kids (like the mini jeeps and hummers), no one has a problem with them. But if a four year old kid saw the keys to mommy and daddy's car, would they think "it's the same as my little car, let me take it for a spin"??? What about the movies that depict cars going through store fronts, do kids think they can take their mini motorized jeep and do the same? With guns, this sometimes does happen, where the kids play with the fake guns, see a real one and think it'll be the same....which brings me to my next point....

It's up to the parents to raise the child to know there is a difference between real and fake, reality and imagination. I think it would have been worse if the candies looked like real pills, but it was tootsie rolls and other candies that do not look anything like real prescriptions. And I'd imagine the parents could decide whether to even take the candy-filled pill bottles and/or whether to give it to their child. As I said, I'm sure there are much better ways to go about promoting the pharmacy, but it's not a reason to be up in arms about it.

[BigAls87Z28]

Disclaimer: I don't have kids, but I am married to a man-boy who tends to get into tons of trouble.


Fixed for humor.

Stupid idea, on mutliple levels.
#1 I hate the overdose of antibiotics in America today. Parents today grew up around cure-all medications using advanced computer technology and have very little time on thier hands. So when they take thier kids to doctors, they want it fixed now like when they were kids.

#2 giving kids candy in drug bottles is akin to putting used oil in Coke bottles, or putting bathroom chemicals in more familiar containers.
Its not that its gunna turn them into drug users...its the drug that does that.
Its the potential that kids will think there are candies in that prescription bottle in Grandma's bathroom, and down a few heart pills.

[BonzoHansen]

I have kids. It was terribly stupid of the store but not that big a deal. Raise your kids, blah blah blah.

[BigAls87Z28]

Kids are stupid. Parent or no parent, they are stupid.

[BonzoHansen]

Kids are stupid. Parent or no parent, they are stupid.

This site proves that on an hourly basis. :lol:

[BigAls87Z28]

I was talking about actual children.

[BonzoHansen]

So was I. LOL