Free gas Thursday -- we'd suggest a car that's armored

We're not quite sure exactly who thought up this promotion, and while we can see it's a blessing to many in a day of almost $4 a gallon gas, I can't say I'd suggest trying to partake of it.

The Verizon Yellow Pages and their web twin (SuperPages.com) are going to be giving away $40 pre-paid gift cards to folks at the Shell gas station at 3615 N. Roxboro St., right next to Durham Regional Hospital in north Durham. The giveaway is set for this Thursday, May 22 at 11am.

Of course, there's only 200 gift cards available to be given away. And therein lies the rub: one can expect something roughly approaching, oh, pandemonium this Thursday as everyone in the tri-county area lines up to get their free gas. Apparently, the N. Roxboro Shell will be the only gas station in the Triangle to be part of the promotion, a one-day deal that's available in 24 metros nationwide.

A nice gesture on the part of this advertiser to garner attention in the midst of a gas price frenzy... though I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to run this promotion right next to a hospital and emergency room. I'd hate to be an ambulance trying to break the logjam on US 501 around lunch on Thursday.

On second thought, if any of the participants on Thursday decide to turn this from a spectator sport to a full-contact one, at least the medics are right next door, after all. (Or as my fellow Derm blogger Barry succinctly put it, "Oy - that's a cluster---- waiting to happen. Bring your weapons.")

My recommendation: if you're just insane enough to try to snag a gas card at this promotion, don't drive there. Instead, hop on Durham's North-South Greenway and take it to Stadium Dr., then follow Stadium east to Roxboro on the sidewalk.

Heck, that wouldn't be a bad statement at all -- a bunch of bicyclists and pedestrians cruising the greenway to get free gas cards while cars were stuck in a traffic jam.

Comments

[Durham Bull Pen]

Ummm, no thanks.

Nice of Verizon to take advantage of people's desperation about gas prices to promote itself in this way.

[anon]

Thanks for the warning Kevin. I'll stay as far away as possible as I can. Surely Verizon could have thought of a better way to distribute these cards without creating a potential mad rush. Yes, I know, don't call you Shirley.

[Kevin Davis]

Hey, I've got an idea -- why don't we take all these $!*@&# phone books we get from Verizon, et cetera, and drop them off at the Shell station?

"Hey, Verizon phone book people! Naw, we don't want any gas cards. But we think you left this at the house!"

(Or is my house the only one that gets approximately twenty phone books a year?)

[Valerie]

There has to be a law against this... right? Anyone? Something along the lines of crying fire in a theater or inciting crowds? (We only got one phone book last year, and I put it immediately in the mixed paper recycling.)

[weege]

These giveaways are never a good idea and the ensuing road rage and/or fist-fights will most likely end up on the evening news. Thanks Verizon!

[barry]

"Surely Verizon could have thought of a better way to distribute these cards without creating a potential mad rush."

Durham Regional Hospital! What is it?

It's the big white building out on Roxboro Rd., but that's not important right now.

[JDC]

With all the pandemonium about the price of gas, you'd think Americans are paying some of the highest prices in the world. In reality, we've got the 108th highest prices in the world.

[ryloc]

i rode my bike there but was told that i can't have a free gas card because i wasn't lined up in my running car on olympic avenue like the other people an hour before they start giving them away inching ever closer evry minute or so.

you need a [running] car to get a free gas card. i biked away in a huff.