Keep your sleeves rolled down when entering this drug chain!

If you’re shopping at a Walgreens any time soon, be on guard.

Because it desperately wants you — or actually it wants your arm.

The pharmacy chain is pushing harder than ever to beat its flu-vaccination records. Store employees receive “talking points,” shirts, and stickers and the stores are decorated with posters everywhere.

You’ll even get 500 of its “balance reward” points when you let them give you a flu jab. Wow, what a deal. That’s worth a whole 50 cents!

And the chain started this big marketing campaign back in August.

“Walgreen’s likes to make sure everybody’s prepared” is how one pharmacist there explained it.

But that’s not how they “prepare” in other countries.

Only the U.S. and Canada have this flu frenzy. And in Europe, doctors are the only ones allowed to give you a vaccine, not a pharmacist.

And then, should you actually come down with the flu, in other parts of the civilized world it’s really no big deal.

In Britain, the National Health Service says that “if you are otherwise healthy, the illness will usually clear up on its own and you’ll recover within a week.”

But don’t try telling that to Walgreens.

In fact, your Walgreens pharmacy will also give you, free of charge, an “immunization assessment” along with your flu shot. That’s to “help determine which other immunizations may be right for you.”

So next time you’re in a Walgreens store play it safe and keep your sleeves rolled down!

Sources:
“Get your flu shot early!” Jessica Michalski, August 29, 2014, ABC 40, wggb.com