vent about "free samples" at grocery store

mum2sarah · #1 12-03-2003, 07:53 AM

Normally, we do 90% of our shopping at the local health food store. But because our closest health food store is 35 minutes away, and because we sometimes forget an item, or whatever, we sometimes pick up some odds and ends at the mainstream grocery store near our house. Anytime we are there we purchase everything in the small organic section (except for things like light bulbs), and then we have to walk past the deli counters on the way to the checkouts. It seems like every single time we walk past, they are giving away "free samples" of meat products. And not only do they have these free samples, they try to get right in your face and offer them to you. It's just so disgusting that an animals life is worth so little in our society that their flesh is just given away for free, after they've lived a tortured existence and been cruely slaughtered. And I swear that it's the same lady every time trying to offer us ham or chicken, and I've told her several times that we're vegetarians. You'd think she'd catch on. Yuck! It's insane how much violence and carnivirous ways are promoted in America! Sorry, just needed to vent a little...

Erin Pavlina · #2 12-03-2003, 11:31 AM

When someone offers me animal foods I say, "No, I don't eat dead animals." it's more of a shock to them than if I say we're vegan or vegetarian.

I scared the bejesus out of some girl scouts once when they asked if I wanted cookies and I said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I don't eat dead animals." they looked shocked and said, "What? Ther'es no animals in here?" I said, "Have your mommy read the label to you. Believe me, you're holding a box of dead animals."

Okay, it was sorta mean, but I said it in a nice, informative way as if to say, "Sorry girls... but you should know what you're selling." Plus I was in a mood that day and they just got me at the wrong time.

But I digress... I hate going to Costco and seeing all the crappy meat samples they're handing out.

annie7 · #3 12-03-2003, 12:33 PM

The smell (or should I say "stench") is so horrible, it's nearly impossible to get past it! It's not just that little area around their table, either. It permeates the whole place! Aisle after aisle. Then we have to walk past the lobster tank to get to the check out! My daughter thinks we should buy them to set them free (in our Indiana back yard in December).

tricia · #4 12-03-2003, 12:36 PM

Yeah they try stuffing the dead animal parts on us in the grocery store... my daughter jus straight up and says "no thanks i dont eat animals"... man i love having a 4 yr old...

there was some guy going door to door yesterday selling coupon books for one of the seafood restaurants in our area... i cut him off once i heard what restaurant was and said cant help ya i am a vegetarian... he then got a confused look on his face and said "really"...like i wasn't supposed to be or he had never met a vegetarian in the city before.... such freaks... i closed the door and started to laugh at his idiocy...

P.S.

Erin, If i can get my gift certificate to work on amazon.com i am finally getting ur book... im soo excited

mum2sarah · #5 12-03-2003, 03:38 PM

tricia, I know what you mean about omni's being clueless. Why do they have to drag meat into every facet of our lives? From "samples," to commercials, to the friggin' Sesame Street Christmas CD I got for my daughter that has "..so, raise the turkey leg on high, it's Christas again..." cheerfully sung by all the Sesame Street characters. Why can we never avoid it?

On a funnier note, there's my poor well-meaning omnivirous mom. She loves our vegan food, but eats the SAD diet when she's with her extremely carniverous husband. She's supportive of us raising Sarah as a vegan, but she can't seem to grasp that, to Sarah, a chicken is a bird that goes "cluck." At 20 months old she has absolutely no understanding that some people eat chicken; she just knows the chickens she sees running free at the animal sanctuary. Sarah is still working on her pronunciation of words, and sometimes "kitchen" or other similar word sounds like "chicken." It just so happens that every time my mom thinks Sarah's saying "chicken," we're in some vegetarian restaurant. She'll say, "what's she want? chicken?" Uh, no, mom, we don't eat chicken, nor do the customers who all heard you say that. It's so embarassing, sometimes, to go out with her, but we just shrug it off, because she just has these ditzy moments from time to time...

sophie · #6 12-03-2003, 06:54 PM

I'll never forget the time years ago when I was at the supermarket with a friend. There was a free sample of some kind of meat and my friend grabbed one and stuffed it in her mouth while I declined. Then I noticed a Tv screen next to the meat playing a video of kangaroos jumping along- I sudddenly realised that that was what the meat was- kangaroo. So disgusting. You should have seen the look on my friend's face as she spat it out.
My daughter hates havign to walk past the butcher section at the supermarket, and so do I. It smells like death and it looks like death. The other day they were carving up a huge slab of meat and Lily said really loudly "mummy! I can see they're chopping up a baa-lamb!" She also says "poor fishies" when she says the dead fish. It's just gruesome.
Erin- LOL, I said the same thing once to someone selling girl guide cookies (which contain animal fat here). I said "no thanks, I'm vegetarian", and the girl said "so am I!" and I told her to check the label of those cookies. Even when I was a little girl I wouldn't eat cokkies with animal fat in them, it just seemed so disgusting.

mum2sarah · #7 12-04-2003, 04:14 AM

Sophie,
I can't understand why someone would want to kill a kangaroo for meat. I remember a friend of mine talking about her recent trip to Australia, and she talked fondly of how they got to see all these kangaroo. Then she said, "and we even *ate* kangaroo meat..." as if this was just affirming her strong affection for the animal. It's just like all these happy cartoon pigs you see on the signs at barbeque restaurants. Why do carnivores think it is showing how much you love animals to have them tortured, killed, chopped up and cooked for you to eat? Don't they see how twisted that is?

mum2sarah · #8 12-04-2003, 04:16 AM

Erin,
Just have to ask... What is in girl scout cookies (although I probably don't want to know)? I never eat them because of all the hydrogenated oils, but I wasn't aware that there were other animal by-products in them, although I probably haven't read the ingredients since I was an omni...

Erin Pavlina · #9 12-04-2003, 04:50 AM

I looked up the girl scout cookie ingredients and they have whey in them. Some have milk and egg products. Two might be suitable for vegans. Not sure.

xmysticprincessx · #10 12-04-2003, 05:08 AM

I "had" to order girl scout cookies last year. (I was a new teacher, and one of the girls selling cookies was my mentor teacher's second grade daughter.)
I remember ordering the Peanut Butter Patties. I know I ordered a 2nd box, but I don't remember if it was for me or my grandparents. I think it might be the Samoas (or whatever the coconut topped ones were) that are vegan, but don't quote me on it.
I do remember that Shortbreads (my childhood favorites) and Thin Mints are definately NOT vegan. (I definately remember checking those.)

annie7 · #11 12-04-2003, 11:56 AM

The coconut ones are called "caramel delights" and are probably not vegan because of said "caramel".

annie7 · #12 12-04-2003, 12:08 PM

Questions Raised About Popular Girl Scout Cookie Ingredients
Tagalong Cookies Improperly Labeled
Rebecca Thompson

POSTED: 5:01 p.m. EST February 25, 2003
UPDATED: 5:32 p.m. EST February 25, 2003

PITTSBURGH -- An e-mail sent to Channel 11 started the ball rolling in clearing up what ingredients are really in the peanut butter Girl Scout cookies.

Diane Antosik's husband saw the problem right away - boxes of popular Tagalong peanut butter patties that didn't have milk or whey listed in the ingredients and other packages that did.

"He says, 'There's dairy in these.' I said, 'No, there's not. I checked the order form and I checked the cookies and they're in the freezer.' And he showed me that," Antiosik said.

Antiosik says she's meticulous about checking labels because her 7-year-old has severe allergic reactions to milk products or whey.

She called the Girl Scouts and Little Brownie Bakery that makes the cookies and was told the ingredient label that listed the milk was wrong.

A representative for the bakery said, "The product does not contain whey or any other milk ingredient and does not pose a health hazard."

But that doesn't give Antiosik much comfort because she's also discovered that other Girl Scout cookies that do contain milk are made on the same baking line, using the same equipment.

"What if a parent whose child reacts to those minute ingredients gets a box with no warning on them and feeds them to their child? Who's going to take responsibility if something happens to that child?" Antiosik questioned.

While the labeling problem is corrected, Little Brownie says parents with children allergic to milk products need not worry. The bakery does stringent cleanup and testing before changeovers are made.

As for Antiosik, she says her daughter will no longer eat the Tagalong peanut butter cookies.

Erin Pavlina · #13 12-04-2003, 12:45 PM

I'm happy to buy the vegan cookies. I am frankly surprised that they offer any.

mum2sarah · #14 12-04-2003, 02:04 PM

I just don't understand how the lighter colored chocolate on those tagalongs could not be milk chocolate??? It doesn't look like dark chocolate to me, unless I'm thinking of the wrong cookie...

annie7 · #15 12-05-2003, 05:50 AM

There are 3 bakeries licensed to make Girl Scout cookies, so unfortunately the ingredients may change from place to place. Little Brownie Bakery, ABC Cookies, and I forget right now the third, but I'll check. Let me do some looking around and I'll see if I can't post where to find the lists of everything in them.