Price Chopper Now Offers Free Prenatal, Kids’ Vitamins

Price Chopper Supermarkets’ “Baby Club” program has begun offering free vitamins to expectant mothers and children up to the age of 4. Program members must bring their prescriptions and membership confirmations to a Price Chopper pharmacist to receive one month’s supply, with as many refills as are allowed on the prescription.

“Taking prenatal vitamins is one of the easiest and most effective ways to ensure the health of both new mothers and their children, and Price Chopper wants to make sure that every new mom in our communities have the opportunity to take this -- and other -- important steps,” noted Vinnie Mainella, VP of pharmacy, health and wellness at the Schenectady, N.Y.-based grocery chain.

“As a family doctor in [New York’s] Schenectady County, I see many patients who have no insurance coverage for vitamins,” said Dr. John M. Pramenko of nearby Niskayuna. “Price Chopper’s plan to provide vitamin products free to women and children who require vitamin supplementation will help fill a troubling gap in our health care delivery system.”

As well as the vitamin offer, Baby Club members receive a free first- and second-birthday cake, free third- and fourth-birthday cookies, and free coupons. Other health-oriented Price Chopper resources include a Kids Cooking Club and a monthly e-mail newsletter with recipes, fun facts and tips.

“Bolstering the Price Chopper Baby Club is an important component of the expansion of Price Chopper’s overall health-and-wellness platform, which includes popular programs such as offering free antibiotics, Diabetes AdvantEdge, RX AdvantEdge and the implementation of the Nuval nutritional scoring system throughout the store,” said Russell Zwanka, the grocer’s SVP of sales, merchandising and marketing.“Helping to keep our customers and our communities healthy is a big part of our overall mission.”

ShopRite stores also recently began offering prenatal vitamins free of charge.

The family-managed Golub Corp. owns and operates 128 Price Chopper grocery stores in New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Golub’s 23,000 associates collectively own 52 percent of the company’s privately held stock, making it one of the nation’s largest privately held corporations that’s mainly employee-owned.