Liquor store owner advertising at his business for help getting vaccine appointment

Owner of A&T Casali Liquors Thomas Casali says he's been trying to get an appointment for almost a month, with no luck.

CRANSTON, R.I. (WLNE) – A local liquor store owner has a new ad up to entice someone to help him get a vaccine appointment.

Thomas Casali, Owner of A&T Casali Liquors, has been trying to book a vaccine appointment for the last three weeks.

“I’m on four or five times a day to try and get it,” said Casali.

Casali says the websites for each location will list how many doses are available at each location, but then say that there’s no appointments.

“I’ve contacted every pharmacy, CVS, Walgreens, everything is booked.”

Casali has owned A&T Casali Liquors in Cranston the last 40 years. He decided to take matters into his own hands Wednesday, and offer $50 on his business’s sign to whoever can help him to get an appointment.

“It’s kind of frustrating. I know people in their thirties that have gotten it – which I’m glad they got it. I hope everybody gets it that wants it. But it’s just like almost like, who you know,” said Casali. “So I was just hoping that maybe somebody could help me out.”

He’s eligible because he’s in his 60s, but he says he also wants to know if and when essential workers will be prioritized, since they have never shut down.

“They said essential workers were going to get it. We’ve been working right through. It’s like everybody forgot about the liquor stores, the grocery workers, the pharmacy workers,” said Casali. “We just got kicked to the curb.”

ABC 6 reached out to the Department of Health to see if they can offer any guidance on this issue or if there’s just been a large flood of appointments recently, but we have not yet heard back.