Want a free drink from GNC? Grab one, go to checkout, and let them know you’re not a member—or that you are a member but don’t have time to update your profile. Apparently, they may just hand you the drink.
No charge. No transaction. No inventory scan. Just a free drink.
There’s only one catch: be prepared for the employee to be visibly annoyed, rude, unprofessional, refuse your purchase, and tell you not to come back.
I rarely spend money at GNC anymore, but recently stopped in for a quick drink for the road. I gave the employee the phone number associated with my GNC account. He asked me to update my profile, and I explained that I didn’t have time and could take care of it later.
The employee, who proudly identified himself as the manager, clearly took that personally. He pushed the drink back toward me and said I was good to go. I was confused because he never scanned it, rang it up, or charged me.
As I was walking out, he told me that because I “didn’t want to help him out,” I shouldn’t come back and should go to the gas station next time.
I actually had to turn around and ask him to repeat himself because I couldn’t believe that was what I just heard but people act bold when they have a false sense of security, and power.
Imagine telling a customer not to come back because they didn’t have time to update their membership profile.
And this wasn’t an isolated experience.
A friend of mine had also experienced an issue with this same alleged “manager,” which I only found out about afterward. On another visit, a completely different GNC employee refused to sell me anything because my profile wasn’t pulling up.
When I asked her to try my phone number again, she didn’t want to. Instead, she tried to get me to create an entirely new account with a different number—which I don’t have. I explained that and simply asked her to check me out as a guest, without points or rewards. She refused.
GNC does not require customers to have a membership just to purchase merchandise. So at that point, refusing the transaction wasn’t about being unable to complete a sale—it was about refusing to complete a sale because I wasn’t going through the membership process she wanted.
The pattern makes a lot more sense when you consider the management.
I understand GNC has dealt with significant financial pressure, store closures, declining sales, and that franchise locations operate on tight margins. I also understand that memberships, promotions, and customer conversions are important to the business.
But none of that gives an employee the right to hold a purchase hostage over a membership profile.
A customer saying, “I don’t have time to update my account right now,” should not result in hostility, refusal of service, or being told to shop somewhere else.
And if an employee is so determined not to process a transaction without a new or updated profile that they would rather give the merchandise away for free than ring it up, that’s a serious management and inventory-control problem.
You cannot claim to be protecting the business while simultaneously turning away paying customers and giving away inventory.
Encourage memberships. Explain the benefits. Ask once. But respect the customer’s answer.
I went into the store intending to spend money. I left with a free drink, no transaction, and a manager telling me not to come back.
That’s not how you generate revenue. That’s how you lose customers.
GNC corporate should seriously review what is happening at this location, because this isn’t a membership problem—it’s a customer service, management, and basic business-practice problem.