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Americans are eating this vaccine incentive up.
Krispy Kreme has been offering a free “Original Glazed” doughnut every day through the end of the year to vaccinated customers who bring their COVID-19 vaccination cards into participating stores. And in the roughly two months since the chain rolled out this free-doughnut-a-day promotion, Krispy Kreme has already given away a gut-busting 1.5 million doughnuts, the company revealed on Tuesday.
And customers who have received their single-shot Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
jab, or at least one of the Moderna
MRNA,
and Pfizer
PFE,
doses, can double-down on the deal this Friday. That’s because, in honor of National Doughnut Day on June 4, anyone (vaccinated or not) bellying up to a participating store gets a free doughnut of their choice. But customers who are also vaccinated against COVID can score their free daily glazed doughnut on top of that, which means they can score two treats gratis.
Krispy Kreme was not immediately available for comment. But Dave Skena, the North Carolina company’s chief marketing officer, told CNN Business that “We’re on our way to giving away many millions of doughnuts” as more people get vaccinated. “That makes us very happy!”
The doughnut maker is not the only brand tempting anyone still on the fence about getting vaccinated by offering a sweet reward for rolling up their sleeves. Breweries across the country are pouring free beer with “shots and a chaser” specials, and several marijuana dispensaries are giving out free rolled joints or cannabis treats. Ride-share companies Lyft
LYFT,
and Uber
UBER,
are also providing free trips to vaccination centers.
Cash is also king in convincing people to get vaccinated. Ohio has seen its COVID vaccination rate soar 45% since announcing its Vax-A-Million lottery, where five vaccinated adult residents have a shot at winning $1 million apiece over the next several weeks. So states including California, New York, West Virginia and Maryland have launched their own lotteries to give their vaccine rates a shot in the arm, too.
Read more: Babydog the bulldog is begging people to enter West Virginia’s vaccine lottery
Krispy Kreme also disclosed on Tuesday that it plans to go public again following a five-year absence. It was public from 2000 to 2016. And the company has now revealed its filing for an initial public offering of common stock, which it expects to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “DNUT.”
