The ‘grumpy old woman’ hates buy one, get one free

I get grumpy with advertising, especially the type of advertising that ends with the big ‘buy one, get one free’ promise. In my opinion, that’s not an incentive to buy. I mean, it sounds like a fantastic deal, but I’m always wary of such promotions. The supplier is either telling me that the product isn’t worth the price I paid or there are those among us who aren’t happy until they thing they’ve got something for nothing.

Take electrical appliances for example. Why would I need two toasters? If the first one works the way it should, then having a stand by seems to be a waste, and if that first toaster doesn’t work then I’m hardly going to be reassured by having two of them. I’ll just be asking for my money back.

I’m sure advertisers spend a fortune trying to convince shoppers they really need a certain product. I recall an ad for some sort of whizzy-spinner to clean my makeup brushes, which on its own sounded all right, but then my opinion was ruined because it was part of a ‘buy one, get one free’ promotion. This just smacks of ‘buy two at the regular price’, if you ask me!

I see this type of promotion all the time. Supermarkets will advertise deals on juice or cereals. If the first item costs more than what an item not on special costs, you can bet your bottom dollar those markets have priced the free item into the first item. It pays to read the fine print, especially when it comes to ‘buy one, get one free’.

What’s also worth considering is just how much I need that second item. Perhaps having more than one spanner or a paint brush wouldn’t be a bad thing. They’d both get used eventually. Yet, can the same be applied to buying milk or produce? The second bottle might go bad before I get a chance to use it and the produce could go limp. That’s hardly a saving!

I’ve thought long and hard about the circumstances that would make me take part in one of those awful ‘buy one, get one free’ promotions and I’ve come up with just one promotion that would hook me in — if a Maine Coon kitten was going ‘buy one, get one free’ I’d be sold! If one of these large, domestic breeds is good then a second one would make my life so much better!

Do you get sucked into promotional advertising like ‘buy one, get one free’? What have you purchased?

Do you have a story to share with Starts at 60 or Travel at 60? Sign up as a contributor and submit your stories to here. If your story is published on our websites, you’ll go into the draw for some great weekly prizes. You can also join the Starts at 60 Bloggers Club on Facebook to talk to other writers in the Starts at 60 community and learn more about how to write for Starts at 60.