If an item is on sale for “buy one, get one” why isn’t that the same as selling one of the item as half-off? And, is this not the same as a “two-for-one” sale? Also along these lines, why is it legal to defy mathematics and say “3 for $1, or 1 for 45 cents”? This bugged me a kid, and when the math teacher would ask how much is one, I’d say (not trying to smart) “How can you know? It all depends on whatever the grocer wants to sell it to ya for!” Well, it’s true, isn’t it? - Jinx
It’s a sales gimmick. “Buy one, get one free” just sounds better than “Two for the price of one”.
ANYTIME you include the word FREE you just got their attention!
At most of the grocery stores in this area, BOGO means you have to buy two and they will not sell you just one for half price. If you want only one, they sell it for the regular price.
However, if the offer is “2 for a buck” they will sell you just one for 50 cents.
BOGO takes the promotion away from the consumer who has no use for only one. It is a way of limiting a promotion’s desireability and controlling promotion cost. It is also a legal example of discriminitory pricing.
I once started a topic here on why these days stores have signs that say “2 for $4 Save $2 when you buy 2” People who worked in the store said that you wouldn’t believe how many people buy 2 when in fact, you could buy one for $2.
Marketing.
I think it’s also a ploy to get rid of perishable stock that has reached the end of its shelf life and would otherwise take time/money to dispose of. If they halved the price, many people would still just buy one, and they’d still be left with stock to get rid of. Make it two for the price of one and customers are actually doing the job for you.
There are also promotions when you can buy one, get one of lesser or equal value. For instance, if you buy a large pepperoni pizza, you could get a large pepperoni pizza or a large cheese pizza for free. But you couldn’t buy a cheese pizza and get a pepperoni pizza for free–you have to pay for the more expensive item.
There are some countries (Sweden or Denmark included IIRC*) where legislation states that the customer may elect to deduct the full value of any free promotional item from the price of the qualifying product - so for “buy one, get one free”, the customer might be able to argue that he wants the full normal selling price of the free one deducted from the price of the other, rendering the price zero; “two for the price of one” however, offers nothing free.
(*from memory of my involvement in complications that arose in setup of a Duty Free shop somewhere out that way some years ago)
Ask the store clerk to give you the free one. They just laugh. They aren’t free.
It's legal because that's the price at which the merchant is willing to sell it to you. And it's not defying mathematics, it's just a more complicated algorithm for computing cost than simple multiplication. It's known as a volume discount. There are a lot of good and obvious reasons why a merchant woud prefer that you buy multiple items. One is that if you buy multiple items, the merchant can buy more items from the middleman and get a volume discount in turn. Another is that if you buy only a single item, the merchant will have that item in inventory, costing money. If you take more than one item home, the second item is on * your [\i] shelf, representing your sunk capital rather than the merchant's. You can consider the volume discount as a way of splitting the cost of maintaining the item in inventory. And, of course, you are buying the item from * this merchant * rather than someone else.Usually when I buy a 3 for a dollar item & only buy one item, it comes to 33 cents not 34 cents. Must be the new math.
No, handy. 33.33333… rounds down to 33. Likewise 66.66666… rounds up to 67.
Just a teensy pet peeve of mine. One third does not round to 0.34, folks.
“Just a teensy pet peeve of mine. One third does not round to 0.34, folks.”
You know, my post says ‘usually’ which isn’t always. That implies that sometimes they do charge 34 cents for one item.
In Michigan if they say “buy one get one free” they have to sell you one at half off (actually they can round up to nearest penny). It rules!!! Ditto for everything marked Buy 2 get 1 Free, or 3 for $4 or whatever.
The word “free” used to mean without cost or other conditions.
It’s meaning has been expanded to include without a stated price or with conditions not explicitly stated.
From an inventory consumption standpoint it is not, As Finagle was pointing out. Many people are bargain hunters and or “stock up” types. Using these people to sell off a discontinued or aging item is much easier in many cases than reducing the price and hoping someone will take notice. A BOGO sale is assuring higher volume rather than a higher percieved value.
Its not defying mathematics, its reality. The business has many unavoidable costs. For example you pick up one can of tomato sauce for 45 cents. You go up, stand in line, cashier rings you up, bags your item, you pay, you leave. If you brought 3 cans of tomato sauce @ 3 for $1 it does not take 3 times as long to check out, in fact it might only be a couple more seconds on a 20-30 second process to purchase triple the product. Since the “multi-purchase” is more cost effective and creates higher cash flow the seller offers incentives for it.
In the dog-eat-dog often less than 1% profit margin world of groceries, this is often a matter of survival. If someone tends to shop around and makes a bulk purchase from you, they will probably not buy that item at another retailer due to the customers existing supply regardless of the price (market saturation).