Image from Flickr - Timothy Valentine

Today we look at something a little closer to home. In fact, it’s a place that I’m a member of and shop at from time to time. Concord Cooperative Market is a small grocery store that sells a lot of local, natural, and organic products. We don’t shop there often but when we do it’s because of the quality of the product and has little to do with the fact that it’s local, organic, or natural.

In the past I have sent emails to the company, mostly due to their support, and sales of homeopathic remedies. I was actually surprised by the first part of the reply where they sent me links to PubMed and told me what to search for. The problem with this was that it had to deal with a lot of herbal remedies that in deed do have some kind of effect, they basically ignored me entirely in regards to homeopathic remedies. Then came the standard reply:

If you do not see value to these products, you are free not to purchase
them. However, we carry them because many of our customers rely on these
products and would like a quality, local source to purchase them. It is part
of our mission statement to provide our community with high quality natural
and organic products as well as to be a resource for health and nutrition
information. This is one way that we do that.

Ahhh yes, if I don’t like it, don’t buy it. It’s not our fault for supplying a product that doesn’t perform as claimed, it’s your fault for buying it. Well you know what, that’s not good enough anymore. You’re selling a product that doesn’t perform as claimed.

I encourage all my readers to contact this store and ask them how they justify selling a product that fails double blind placebo controlled studies.

Now, keep in mind that it’s no secret that I’m not only a skeptic at work, but that I also run Granite State Skeptics. I wear my Surly Ramics necklace, I have stickers on both my personal and work computer, as well as my cube. As a result I think that people may have noticed more than usual that I was wearing this bracelet that they heard me talk about in passing.

In two days of wearing it I have been asked about it about a dozen times, and have shown coworkers the applied kinesiology tests 4 times. I’m sure to point out the normal cost of the bracelet, and also that I got them for the cost of shipping by getting the samples from a distributor. Now, this may not work while walking down the street, but I think that it’s been highly effective as an outreach tool here at work.

After a quick email to Dr. Rachie to get the website I found some fascinating information. I’m going going to post a link to the specific product, because as it turns out there are a lot of distributors that sell the product and some could be knock-offs. The site where you can search for them is Alibaba.com and they have a LOT more than just power balance bracelets. So go there and search for your favorite woo related items… But the fun doesn’t stop there.

Most of the distributors have a requirement for a minimum purchase. For the silicone bracelets the lowest number I could find was 500 pieces. Even at the 30-50 cents they charge, that’s more than I’m willing to spend for that product and what am I going to do with the other 495 after I put a few through some tests and hand them out at skeptics meetups.

Then I noticed something… They offer samples. I shot off an email to one distributor and asked how much it was for some samples. Within two hours I had an email back with some product pictures and was told they would send me three samples, in the box, for only the cost of shipping. I replied back with the colors of bracelets I wanted and what packaging I wanted and I’m now waiting for the shipping costs.

This is a great resource for trying to procure woo related items on the cheap to put them through the paces. Be sure to search around to look for the best deal.

Panelists will include Dale Roy, physical science teacher with 8 years experience in the classroom. Kitty Mervine, owner and operator of badalien.org a website devoted to helping those that think they were abducted, as well as a representative from the James Randi Education Foundation, a group dedicated to exposing pseudoscience and uncovering the paranormal. Your moderator will be Travis Roy, president of the Granite State Skeptics.

So join us, May 23rd at the Manchester, NH Radison. More info can be found at the official Facebook Event, or www.granitecon.com

I’m pleased to announce our first family friendly event. Skeptics at the Drive-In. Come join us Sunday, April 25th at 5pm at Cremeland Drive-In on Valley St. in Manchester, NH.

Please sign up on the Facebook Events page.