Related coverage: Voting incentives

I’d heard about some businesses offering incentives for folks to get out and do their civic duty: Starbucks and their free cup of coffee, Ben & Jerry’s and their free cup of ice cream, Krispy Kreme’s handing out free star-shaped sprinkle doughnuts and Chick-fil-A giving away chicken sandwiches to people with “I Voted” stickers. I decided to check out as many of these offers as possible.

One-quarter of my freebie hopes was dashed when an internet search told me the nearest Ben & Jerry’s was located about 20 minutes away in Birmingham. Even with the falling price of gasoline, I decided the ice cream was not worth my time or caloric allowance. The same with the Krispy Kreme doughnut, which, according to a friend’s report, would have been a bust, since her free doughnut was a plain ol’ glazed.

Free Starbucks coffee

Starbucks, however, is in the Trussville metro area, and I headed over that way at 6:25 p.m. Here’s how it went:

Barista: “Hi.”
Me: “Hi!”
Barista: “What can I get for you?”
Me: “Got any of that free election coffee?” [flashed my “I Voted” sticker]
Barista: “Sure. Regular or decaf?”
Me: “Regular, please.”
Barista: [hands me 12 oz. cup of java] “There you go.”
Me: “Have many people asked for free coffee today?”
Barista: “Oh, yeahhh...”
Me: “How many would you say?”
Barista: “I don’t know...a LOT. I just got here.”

Okay. On to Chick-fil-A.

Free Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich

At 6:48, Chick-fil-A was pretty packed. The parking lot was almost at capacity, the line for the drive-thru was wrapping around the building and about 20 customers waited inside. After five minutes in line, I got up to the counter and asked the cashier if they were, indeed, offering free Election Day sandwiches. He grimaced and nodded. I felt a little weird, asking for just the free sandwich, so I thought it was a good opportunity to try the limited-edition peppermint chocolate chip milkshake. Good call. Three or four minutes later, my order arrived.

Me: “How many people do you think have ordered the free sandwich today?”
Cashier: “Hmm, let’s see...all of them.”

I doubt voting has ever been so popular here.