Yet More Good Reasons To Vote…Free Stuff!
Yes, just in case getting your favorite candidate into office isn’t a good enough reason for you to drag your sorry behind out of your recliner and down to your local polling station, you’ve now got moar reasons…you can bag some serious swag. Yes, there are several companies who are giving away free stuff to anyone who votes today (or who just claims they did), and as a public service to you, loyal GlossLip reader, I’ve attempted to compile a list of some of them:
- Krispy Kreme: I wrote about this one a few days ago. Wear your “I Voted” sticker to any Krispy Kreme retailer, and you can get a free star-shaped donut…with sprinkles! I mean, they’re Krispy Kremes, already the golden shining star of donuts, and they have sprinkles! Patriotic sprinkles!
- Ben & Jerry’s: Go into any Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops today and get a free scoop of their delicious ice cream. The catch: It’s only from 5-8 PM. I don’t think you have to show your sticker, but you should anyway just to prove you voted.
- Chick-fil-A: Go into one of their locally-owned franchises today (and perhaps tomorrow) and get a free chicken sandwich. I’m not sure just how many of their stores are planning the giveaway, but in some you show your sticker and in some you bring in one of your Presidential yard signs in exchange for a sandwich (intended to help clean up the inevitable trash left over on November 5) and in some you just show up. Check your local franchise.
- Starbucks: Go to your local Starbucks today and get a free tall brewed coffee; you don’t even have to show your sticker. (Don’t look at me, I am boycotting Starbucks…they can give away zillions of cups of free coffee but they close MY Starbucks, the only one within twenty-some miles? Forget them. But you feel free to go get a coffee. Who am I?)
There are also lots of local businesses offering free goods and services today, so check your local paper or Google.
The cynic in me believes that this is just another way of getting warm bodies to buy moar product with cold cash (after all, you might want a tasty pastry to go with that free coffee), but on this Very Important Day, I think I’ll try to believe the best of people. Except Starbucks. They suck.
Vote early and vote often! 
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So sure, a cup of coffee from Starbucks for voting is nice. So is a Ben & Jerry’s cone. But there’s one truly significant break that’s so typical SoCal. Cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Mitch Goldman of La Jolla Spa MD in La Jolla, California sent a notice to his client list offering 20% off any procedure or treatment. That’s ANYTHING - even laser treatments. We’re talking free Botox and Restalyne! Now, to be perfectly legal under California state law, it’s on the honor system and anyone can make the request during Election Week. This takes the free coffee and treats offer to a whole new level. This could easily be worth several hundred bucks. Dr. G. says he’s doing his part to support democracy and beautify America. Get out the vote, get out the wrinkles?
Comment by Gayle — November 4, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
I am 22 and I’d like to capture my thoughts before America either elects a president who its first 26 presidents could have legally owned, or brazenly subverts the very ideals it was founded upon by manipulating numbers in a final embarrassingly overt goosestep towards corporate totalitarianism.
I am nervous. And not night-before-the-swim-test nervous or even night-you-lose-your-virginity nervous, it’s a low rumbling primal panic which I can only liken to Star Wars panic. Disney panic. The edge-of-your-seat-terror that makes you wonder if Skywalker’s doomed after he refuses to join Darth Vader and drops down into the abyss, if the wicked octopus or grand vizier or steroid-pumping-village-misogynist is going to wed/kill/skin the dashing prince and then evil people in dark funny costumes are going to take over the world… if it wasn’t a movie of course.
And tonight it’s not. It’s not a movie and yet I feel like Obama might as well be wearing an American flag cape while a decaying McCain, in a high-tech robotic spider wheelchair wearing an eyepatch and stroking an evil cat, gives orders to a sexy scheming Palin who marches back and forth through their sub-terranian campaign lair in four inch thigh-highs and full-body black leather catsuit bossing around the evangelical ants with a loooooong whip… umm… is this just me?
Anyway, the point is that things feel weird folks. I have friends who have peed in waterbottles to keep from interrupting a Halo-playing marathon who got off their asses/couches to volunteer for the Obama campaign not once, but many times. Friends so cheap their body content is at least 1/3 Ramen Noodle who donated a good deal of their hard-earned cash to the campaign. People have registered to vote in record numbers, and yet, something just doesn’t feel right. I think we should stop congratulating ourselves for just voting. To vote is a privilege which people have died for, and I think there’s a whole lot more to be done for the country than to simply help win an election every 4 years.
Hundreds of millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of man-hours spent on both sides by good-intentioned people who want to make a difference in an historic election, so many resources and voices and energies devoted to a single day. After tomorrow, half of that is going to have been a waste. And I can’t help but wonder what could have happened if all that muscle had been put towards something else, and what will happen to its momentum after the election has come and gone. Shouldn’t we be donating our money to good causes whenever we can? Helping people who don’t have? Dedicating some of our time to contribute to making the country which provides for us a better place? Of course a power shift is a hugely significant step on the path to great reform, but worrying about this election has been a wakeup call for me:
Even if Obama wins, we have not “won.” This isn’t a movie and we can’t toss every greedy lobbyist oil fatcat bigot down a reactor shaft. I think if we dedicate ourselves to the ongoing welfare of the country as much as we have to the outcome of this election, we’ll have a much better shot at coming closer to the overwhelming good the liberals hope Obama will usher in, but which no mere mortal could fully realize alone.
Which brings me to the other side. I’ve heard a lot of people claim that if McCain wins, they’re leaving. I heard the same thing about Bush’s reelection, and his unelection before that, and nobody seems to be leaving. And that’s fine. Because as much as I complain about certain political happenings, atrocities, etc., I really do like it here and I suspect most other people do too. We have New York and Hollywood, purple mountain’s majesty and sea to shining sea, we created jazz and country music and baseball and cars and lightbulbs and computers and that movie with hundreds of animated singing Chihuahuas! I mean who among the shivering Plymouth pilgrims ever imagined ordering hundreds of animated singing chihuahuas onto a magical box from an invisible information superweb?
The point being, if things don’t turn out the way I want tomorrow, I feel compelled, as a college-graduated adultish-type-person, to take a stand. And if I’m going to leave I’m going to leave. But if I’m going to stay I’m not going to sit around whining like I have for the past 8 years. It’s like when I don’t clean my room because it’s dirty and then I blame the dirt. So in my very indecisive way, before you and your screen, I’m declaring my intention to make some kind of stand in the event of -(Ican’tevensayit)-, and encouraging you to consider making one too…
Jump the ship or grab a bucket?
-Sigh-
Wasn’t everything so much easier back when the worst possible affront to your values was a PB&J sandwich cut diagonally with crust?
Anyways, I guess what I’m saying is that if we’re going to stay on board, we should probably be generous with our time and resources when times are tough even more than when the hero saves the day. Because what if he doesn’t? And what if he can’t? If we’re serious about real change, election day should only be the beginning of “Yes we can,” not the end.
Best,
Hannah Friedman
http://www.writinghannah.blogspot.com
Comment by hannah friedman — November 4, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
I think a link to your blog would have sufficed Hannah.
And Gayle, enough with the shameless promotion for the good Dr.
My 2 cents: Those doughnuts sure look tasty. I think I’ll go grab one.
Comment by Rachel — November 4, 2008 @ 6:06 pm
Uh, yeah, it’s just you. Unfortunately, this sort of distorted perception is running rampant. Neither Obama nor McCain is all good or all bad.
Sorry, but the adult world is hard, and sometimes difficult decisions have to be made. The days of PB&J cut longways or diagonally are long gone. Grow up and get with it.
I agree, a link to your little self-important diatribe would have been plenty.
Comment by k — November 4, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
Well said, Hannah. You should post this comment on your blog. Anxiety about election fraud may be motivating many people to vote is such numbers. If the polls show the public’s intention was for one candidate (either one) in sweeping numbers and the election results from voting machines and ballot accounting show a gross discrepancy the other way… what does that say?
Comment by K9 — November 4, 2008 @ 8:49 pm