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Globe Editorial
HOW ABOUT some candy to go with that nail polish or that bottle of aspirin? In a new trick to promote more treating, drugstores lately have been instructing checkout clerks to ask customers, even bleary-eyed commuters who are trying to grab a newspaper just after dawn, if they also want a bag of candy. This practice, which was evident in local stores long before the Halloween sugar binge, is ridiculous in an increasingly obese and diabetic America.
Spokesmen for drugstore titans
Similarly, clerks at Hudson News at Logan Airport routinely ask customers, no matter how long the line is, if they also want a bottle of water and a pack of gum or mints. A Hudson News spokeswoman argued that seniors and other people may truly need, for medical reasons, to bring extra water on board so they can take medicine at a specific time. But that’s not true of everyone, and it’s certainly not true of gum. Most of the time, these calculated pitches are little more than an annoying manipulation of the consumer.
The treat is just a trick.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
