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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

#71

Post by paganel »

underwater wrote: post #65
paganel wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I ended up doing in order to avoid this is that I’ve been buying from the same brands for some time now, i.e. the same soap, the same shampoo, the same butter (truth be told, for butter I fluctuate between two brands), the same chocolate, the same detergent etc. This way I don’t fall for tricks like the one you mentioned because I almost don’t care about any other brands and products than the ones I’m really int…

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.

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

#72

Post by tyfon »

chrisper wrote: post #69
tyfon wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my wife comes back from shopping I often jokingly ask her 'how much did you "save" today' and she laughs back. We're in a quite good position so it doesn't matter as much but it's often easy to get lost in the rebates and forget how much is actually spent.

Also with these "deals" you often also have to ask yourself: Are you buying it because it is cheap or are you buying it because you need it? Often people buy stuff they don't need because it is on sale "right now."

Exactly..

A good way to get around this is to keep a "wishlist" of things you actually need and then if there is a sale you can get it.

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

#73

Post by feeboo »

legatus wrote: post #33

Does anyone know of a book (even better a textbook, if possible) detailing these strategies? This article is about the "BOGO" deal, I'm interested in reading about other kinds of these strategies, and why they work. If anyone has any recommendation, especially for more academic stuff (textbooks or papers), I would greatly appreciate it!

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" by "Daniel Kahneman" is a great book on these topics. There is a lot of info on how the mind can be tricked. I really recommend it.

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

#74

Post by icebraining »

StavrosK wrote: post #57
eeZah7Ux wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thankfully in some European country food must be sold with a clear indication of the "real" cost per KG

Greece does this, and it's a lifesaver. No more ballparking the math, I buy the cheapest shampoo and toothpaste per liter very easily.

It's EU-wide, thanks to the Price Indications Directive (98/6/EC).

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

#75

Post by qrbLPHiKpiux »

glastra wrote: post #15
dalai wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, if you want to buy two of them they cost $20 + $3 S&H or $26 with free shipping.

S&H is not always fixed-rate. In fact, "handling" two items should cost more. Shipping more weight should also cost more.

I bet a lot of people do not take into account of the time, fuel, wear-and-tear of their car to go get their wares.

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

#76

Post by kabacha »

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 throwing out old food.

I wonder if in the grand scale of things this abuse backfires or I'm just a rare case as a foreigner.

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

#77

Post by icebraining »

mojuba wrote: post #70
mcv wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I increasingly tend to close popups on websites by deleting them from the DOM through dev tools. Not the most user-friendly method, but it's quite thorough.

Doesn't always work though, some web sites also manage to block scrolling of the main content which may not always be easy to figure out (esp. on messy web sites with megatons of JavaScript code, HTML and CSS). And surely there are browser plugins that help you remove annoying DOM elements in one click?

uBlock Origin has a visual picker, which also saves the blocking rule for future visits: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Element-picker

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

#78

Post by kiba »

chrisdone wrote: post #60

I feel that there is a wealth/background effect here that could be studied somewhat too. I think people who don't have to worry about money are less likely to pay any attention to discounts and deals. Having come from a council estate, there is a certain mindset behind getting a deal for everything, making your little money go as far as possible, buy one get one free, or discounts on anything, or coupons to get into…

I learned a tip from someone:

"Save 100% by not buying anything!"

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

#79

Post by everdrive »

tyfon wrote: post #66
chrisdone wrote: post #60

I feel that there is a wealth/background effect here that could be studied somewhat too. I think people who don't have to worry about money are less likely to pay any attention to discounts and deals. Having come from a council estate, there is a certain mindset behind getting a deal for everything, making your little money go as far as possible, buy one get one free, or discounts on anything, or coupons to get into…

When my wife comes back from shopping I often jokingly ask her 'how much did you "save" today' and she laughs back. We're in a quite good position so it doesn't matter as much but it's often easy to get lost in the rebates and forget how much is actually spent.

I usually don't like language that suggests that consumers are brainwashed by marketing. But, getting people to comprehend that spending money =/= saving money is surprisingly difficult.

Even when they understand money has been spent, it's not spent rationally: money "saved" at the grocery store doesn't actually mean less total money spent, rather the same amount as usual is spent, and more food than usual was able to be purchased.

This is a fine tact if you're going for volume, but it's absolutely not "saving money."

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

#80

Post by hannob »

chrisdone wrote: post #60

I feel that there is a wealth/background effect here that could be studied somewhat too. I think people who don't have to worry about money are less likely to pay any attention to discounts and deals. Having come from a council estate, there is a certain mindset behind getting a deal for everything, making your little money go as far as possible, buy one get one free, or discounts on anything, or coupons to get into…

I don't have hard numbers to quote on this, but I'm very convinced that you end up paying more in the end.

From my own experience and pretty much every one I talk about this, people have a tendency to buy things they'll never need. (I constantly try not to do that, but it takes active thinking about it all the time.) No discount deal is cheaper than the one where you don't buy something you don't need.

Then there's underestimated costs that aren't immediately visible. If you buy more stuff of items that you use over a longer timeframe you'll have to store them. Which of course means you're paying rent for the space in your flat that's taken up by excess stuff.

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