Sam's Club Gives Kids Candy In Pill Bottles

by Sandy Maple (Subscribe to Sandy Maple's posts) Jun 30th 2009 3:00PM

Sam's Club targets children with ill-advised pharmacy promotion. Image: Pam Roth/sxc.hu

Competition in the pharmacy business must be pretty tough these days. In order to get your business, pharmacies have begun 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?

Source

Comments (77)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

jim 6-30-2009 @ 2:13PM

The first child that takes meds at home and dies, will have their parents suing their butts off. How stypid can this store be?

DANNY WHITMIRE 6-30-2009 @ 6:05PM

THIER PARENTS SHOULD BE SUED FOR BEING STUPID!!!!! RAISE YOUR CHILDREN WITHOUT EXPECTING OTHERS TO DO IT FOR YOU!!!!!!

nellie 7-06-2009 @ 6:54PM

A-MEN

Donna 7-10-2009 @ 3:13AM

I agree with you. I am appalled that Sam's Club would do something so irresponsible. even more so that parents would allow them to give this to their child. I would have told them "NO" even "if" it caused a problem. I take many prescription drugs, and when I happen to drop a pill due to problems with hands after a stroke in 2005 I have my spouse or one of the older kids get it off of the floor before our 8 month old grand daughter that we are raising happens to see it..I do not want her to see a bright colorful pill and put it in her mouth. She is at the stage where she picks up everything and heads straight to the mouth. I hope that this is stopped ASAP before a child dies, because they think it is okay to take medicine from a prescription bottle thinking it is candy. How could Sam's Club be so stupid?? Now that we have a baby in the house again I make sure the safety caps are put on all my medications even though this means someone else has to open the bottle. However I feel better knowing she can't get into them.

EKF 6-30-2009 @ 2:24PM

How could the pharmacist have consented to do something this incredibly stupd? It seems to border on the unethical to do something so irresponsible. The Sam's Club management team, all the way to the top, and the pharmacists involved, should be required to do Poison Control Center PSAs! This lapse in professional judgement is hard to believe!

Patty 6-30-2009 @ 2:37PM

OMG...it's hard to believe not ONE person in the line of
people who had their hands in this "promotion" did not scream STOP!
It didn't enter anyone's mind how dangerous it might be when
candy is presented in a drug container? I am flabbergasted the idea wasn't nixed in its early stages by someone with a brain!

glen 6-30-2009 @ 6:20PM

its wal-mart they dont hire very smart people,if they did they would ask for a raise and benifits,which walmart/samms club can afford because they buy all there crap from china.those percrition bottles probably came from china.Unforanatly most of the people how shop there is about as smart as the people who worl there so some poor kid will get into the pills at left out were a kid can get it and die,and of course it will be walmarts fault.

Jerry 6-30-2009 @ 7:22PM

first of all Patty I agree with you 100%..... Some people CAN have dumb ideas and this one I think tops the charts.........I have kids and I would be furious if someone gave my kids some candy in a pill bottle....
However I do believe it is the parents responsibility to stop the store clerk from giving it to thier child......

Second of all......... Glen, if you are going to insult someone for shopping/working at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club.... MAYBE YOU SHOULD LEARN TO SPELL FIRST.... you called some people stupid when you are the one that can't spell the word WORK......

REP 6-30-2009 @ 3:34PM

EKF...You are very correct...I have been working in the clinical pharmacy profession for 30 years...and I have to admit this is one of the stupidest, dumbest stunts I have seen.. If this were my pharmacist who went along with this dim-wit idea I fill my prescreptions at a dog food store...dumb...dumb..I never usually respond to blogs...but this I could not resist...sent the pharmacist to work in the automotive...mabey indvidual can expand the marketing skills and good sense obviously lacking

randym 6-30-2009 @ 3:09PM

Doesn't anyone remember candy cigarettes? Like they were a bad thing... oh wait, maybe they were.

WAYNE 6-30-2009 @ 3:36PM

The store is stupid, but humans by noture is even more stupid, because of that we have warnings on every frigging thing in life because of stupid people with stupid kids, like puting dont drink on poison bottle and so ondont touch hot when when see fire and on and on

barbee1264 6-30-2009 @ 3:36PM

No way! Is this for real??? I'm in shock. Seriously, I didn't think anyone was THAT stupid!

nic 6-30-2009 @ 3:55PM

Am I the only one who doesn't think this is a big deal. Probably, in our nannified pc world. Different generation I guess. I miss candy cigarettes.

vigor101 6-30-2009 @ 3:49PM

well you never know, sams club has to reinvestigate and wonder who would authorize this. It was nice for them to give goodies to the children, but a baggie would have been the answer, or maybe a cup full. reevaluate the situation before handing things out. think before you do. is that not what we tell our children. Sams club, i am looking for a management job, though I do not have the experience but my brain does..

Dream 6-30-2009 @ 3:50PM

hahaha I loved those candy cigarettes.

Sara 6-30-2009 @ 3:59PM

It seems any monkey can write for this website. I am so tired of reading around grammer and spelling mistakes. Can I please get a job editing your articles? This one wasn't even a quote.

"In order to get your business, pharmacies have begin promoting themselves like never before."

It should say "pharmacies have begun..."

I question the truth of the article because the author can't even write. But, if the story is true then I agree, that is really stupid.

me 6-30-2009 @ 4:16PM

Umm, You misspelled "grammer." It shoud be spelled "grammar."

tara 6-30-2009 @ 4:33PM

Just a suggestion....before criticizing someone else on grammar and spelling, it's probably best to at least run a spell check before clicking "send"....just a thought.