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The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

thehustle.co

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Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#171

Post by porpoisely »

chippy wrote: post #32

> Most online clothing brands offer ‘free’ shipping, with the catch that you have to meet a minimum purchase amount (often $100) to qualify. Some 58% of consumers will add additional items to their cart — often things they didn’t originally intend to purchase — just to “save” $5 to $10 on handling fees. You will find people vigorously defending their behaviour when challenged on this. For example: Amazon Prime. Amazo…

I'm embarrassed to say Amazon got me with this trap a few times. I'm at the checkout with a $19 mouse but amazon reminds me that I could get free shipping if I get to the $25. So I go back and look for something I need for $6 bucks. Can't find anything I need for $6 bucks so out of frustration I somehow end up with a $70 worth of stuff I don't need just to save a couple of bucks on shipping.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#172

Post by multibit »

ocfnash wrote: post #11

I quite enjoy mentally parsing these "offers" in logically equivalent ways. E.g., "buy one get one free" as "only sold in units of two" or even "each purchase of one requires compulsory purchase of a second". As a child I remember considering the difference between "extra free" and "free" which I used to see on cereal boxes. Sometimes the box claimed "10% free!" but other sneakier boxes would claim "10% extra free!".…

BOGO does not always mean "only sold in units of two". Sometimes retailers, like my grocer, will just halve the price of a single item if it's BOGO.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#173

Post by richpimp »

I recently went to a department store called Kohl's for the first time with my wife, who'd been shopping there for years. For those unfamiliar with this store, think something similar to a JC Penney's. What struck me was that above every item was some digital signage showing a discounted price or promotion (B1G1 Free, 25% off, etc.), along with the MSRP price. So basically, anything I looked at seemed like a great deal. They also have a rewards program whereby you get "Kohl's cash" whenever you reach some threshold for purchases (something like $5.00 Kohl's cash for every $100 spent), which effectively gives you a discount.

Of course, I soon realized that this was all simply a tactic to encourage people to continue to spend their money in the store, an effective one at that. The "sale" price was really no different than the standard price at any other retail store. It was just the perception of getting a good deal and triggering the dopamine receptors in the brain. I told my wife this, but her reaction was one of incredulity. Her thinking was she was saving money by shopping there. It's such a simple, yet brilliant tactic. Make people feel like they're getting a good deal, and they'll spend more money than they otherwise would.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#174

Post by nsomaru »

paganel wrote: post #71
underwater wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not exactly beating the system. That's just plain old brand loyalty, which companies love. You've stopped shopping based on quality or value, and they can turn a profit without investing anything into marketing.

I don’t want to beat the system because I know it’s a lost battle from the get-go ans I also don’t really feel the need of being “lured” into buying a product. That’s also one of the reasons why I still don’t use an ad-blocker, as I’m almost totally blind to advertising, both online and offline. I do think though that this tactic has made me purchase less stuff over time, I consider that as a win.

With an adblocker, pages load faster and you save data. If you’re already blind to ads then it shouldn’t matter...

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#175

Post by vxNsr »

hopler wrote: post #153
vxNsr wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to commodities, the best thing to do is shop by unit, ignore the "sale price" and the msrp, look only at the cost/ounce or cost/unit most US stores list both on their price tags, though you have to watch out for when they use different measurements for directly competing products (ie kellogs sold by the ounce while store brand by the pound). In semi-blind taste tests I've always preferred the name brand…

The name brands taste better because they have put more effort into researching weird chemicals that taste good

I’ve heard it’s kinda the opposite. Apparently, lotsa white labeled goods are manufactured in the same plant as the name brand stuff, by that brand, but to differentiate it, the brand will tweak the recipe slightly for the white label run.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#176

Post by mojuba »

mcv wrote: post #132
vxNsr wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only issue is the scrolling, how do I make a rule that blocks the inline js to prevent scrolling in the body elem. or worse when it's not inline.

I usually look at the body element and start removing classes there. That often works. But I suppose a plugin should be able to figure out automatically why something isn't scrolling.

Or a shortcut for non-technical people: outline.com. Works perfectly even on most paywalls, not just annoying popups.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#177

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

kabacha wrote: post #76

I've been living in Thailand for a while now and the market is so unregulated and abused by these sorts of deals. A big super market near my house runs 2for1 buns every day for the past year. I've got desensitised to the point where I don't even see the "original price" anymore. The deal price is just the real and only price. The only real deals are the "almost expiring" price reductions super markets put out before…

I don’t know if they are legit, but I was shocked by the number of furniture “liquidation” sales when I first moved to Southern California. It seemed every furniture store was closing and selling off inventory. After living in one area for a while it became clear liquidation was just a means of selling crap and reopening under a different name.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#178

Post by ubercow13 »

mrec wrote: post #167
dazc wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A long running promotion in Tesco is 3 bottles of any brand beer for £5.25. I can't imagine anyone ever goes into a store with the intention of buying 3 bottles but if you just buy 2 you're misguided into thinking you'll lose out. In reality, you're spending more and drinking more than you really want to.

It's not like bottled beer goes off, so unless you were planning to buy 2 bottles and then never buy beer ever again , I don't see the problem.

It requires more self control not to drink the third one when it's sitting in your fridge than when it's sitting in the supermarket

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#179

Post by mikepurvis »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #138
jacobyoder wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

paganel is saving time by no thinking about the issue, so 'winning' in some sense. However... you don't know what the brand is. The brand may be the store brand, which... while it's brand loyalty, is almost always the cheapest, and usually don't have any marketing expense beyond the product in the store in the first place. I've learned to love most store brands, and... it may be my mind rationalizing it, but I think…

Store brands have certainly gotten much better. I generally try and buy as many store brands as I can. There are a few items where I like the flavor of a brand name better, but not many.

Some grocery chains even have two tiers of store brand. For example, the Loblaws/Zehrs stores in Ontario have yellow "No Name" packaging for the basic level, and "President's Choice" for the premium. Some products are only available in one tier or the other, but for a lot you do have both.

Re: The shady economics of ‘buy one, get one free’ deals

#180

Post by tyingq »

hopler wrote: post #158
tyingq wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Free shipping" is a funny one. For smaller businesses, it's basically subsidizing far away customers with nearby customer money. I offer it not because I want to deceive people, but because we sell more that way. People like predictable upfront prices without having to tell anyone their location. It is, of course, not "free". We just calculate the average shipping cost and pad the price.

How much does shipping cost actually vary? I always assumed that first//last mile handling of a package dominates over the fuel/depreciation cost share of driving the item farther.

It's much higher for large packages to go long distances vs short. For smaller packages, it matters less, especially because USPS has their flat rate boxes, and UPS/FedEx have to compete with them.

UPS and FedEx charge for large packages by size, not weight. They call it "dimensional weight". And ding heavily for big+far.

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