The Virginian-Pilot
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The votes are tallied and it’s official: Norfolk loves Reese’s more than any other U.S. city.
In exchange for their affection, Reese’s plans to give Norfolk candy-eaters free gasoline and groceries from 6 to 8 a.m. today at the Farm Fresh supermarket on Military Highway.
The Hershey Co. hosted an online contest, asking for votes from consumers in the five cities with the largest per-capita sales of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and other candy. Norfolk won with 44 percent of the vote, a Hershey spokeswoman said.
The first 200 drivers at Farm Fresh in the two-hour window will fill up their tanks for free, Jennifer Nau said.
The contest site noted a grocery giveaway worth up to $45,000 for the first 150 attendees, but Nau wouldn’t provide information about that. She called it a surprise.
Hershey declined to release event details before this morning because police expressed security concerns, Nau said.
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Free Gas
THey should have done this on Sunday morning from 10 to noon and announced it, so business traffic would not have been tangled by the thousands trying to line up onto militay hwy to get the gas, then fighting for position, literally. We've seen it before. A better promotion would have been for 150 lucky shoppers to have randomly been given free gas through the cash register when they shopped. That way more people would have shopped at Farm Fresh and you would have controlled who got the free gas. But I am not a promoter
Norfolk PD
Norfolk PD: How is this a security concern?
I assume this is why there could've been low turn out
Pronunciation
I don't live in Hampton Roads anymore, but I seriously thought it was pronounced *ReesIe's* because that's the way everyone else said it...
a tribute to tooth decay!
Sweeeeeeeeeet!
I agree with Kirk-VaBeach
I agree with Kirk-VaBeach that this is an ill-conceived promotion. I was reading it at 7am this morning and wondering if I had time to get dressed and over to Military Highway by 8am. I blew it off. Setting it up for 6-8am because of "security concerns" means that the positive promo value of the contest is overshadowed by the negative image that they are trying to dampen down the number of people showing up by having it so early. That's *bad* public relations.
And hey Francisco, you're too funny. I have never been able to get my Norfolk-born wife to stop calling them "Reesies".
Security
Actually, the security pigs felt "don't release info before today because of security reasons" (which I think is stupid especially since, for example, I don't read the paper until around lunch time)
huh?
three negative comments about a candy contest???
Great time for free gas and groceries?
They are offering free gas from 6am-8am this morning. And exactly how many people will have had a chance to read their paper or catch this on the morning news before 8am? What a cop-out by Hershey's for a promo. They should have offered the free gas and grocery give-away later in morning or at midday. And still it was only for the first 200 customers. So it really was't free gas from 6-8am. It was free only if you were one of the first 200 between 6-8am.
That's strange
People from Norfolk can't even pronounce "Reese's."
Too Funny
The number one cruise destination in the US, second in the world, and they best they can muster is top sale of Reese's peanut butter cups?