Beware of 'Buy X, get Y Free' offers

In my last post, I mentioned a 'buy beer, get free oranges' promotion at my local IGA. I arrived there and was given a bag of pathetic oranges, most of which were rotten. Needless to say, I didn't take the offer. The price of the beer wasn't worth the two or three decent oranges in the bag. Yet, I know some people who would have bought the beer anyway just to get that mouldy bunch of oranges, unable to resist something 'free' and not realising what it's actually worth.

Then, there are free offers that actually make sense.

I went to Payless yesterday to get summer footwear. I don't buy my everyday footwear there because their shoes don't hold up to the amount of walking I do, but I do like to get special occasion shoes that I'll only wear once or twice, as well as sandals. No matter what price I pay for sandals, I wear them through in one season, so I prefer to 'stock up' on a bunch of cheap sandals at places like Payless, Walmart, and Zellers and have some variety for the summer than to buy one really expensive pair. At any rate, this week there was a BOGO sale (buy one, get one free) and an additional promotion I was not aware of until I got to the cash.

I browsed the offerings and found two cute pairs for 5$ and 10$ each, reduced from 25$. They weren't worth 25$, but at 5$ and 10$, they were definitely worth it. I also picked out two pairs at a full price of 35$. I figured that with the BOGO offer I'd pay full price for the two most expensive pairs, then get the cheaper ones for 2.50$ and 5$. Nope! One of the 35$ pairs was given to me half price and also the 10$ pair! Then I was told that by buying four pairs of shoes, I was allowed a free pair of slippers. Skeptical, I gave the clerk my size and then she came out with two pairs of furry sequin-covered monstrosities, one in hot pink and one in black. I decided to take the black pair without examining it too closely since I needed slippers and figured that if they turned out to be a dud, I could toss them out. As it turns out, the slippers are extremely comfortable (heavenly comfortable!) and I love them!!! There was a price tag on them of 25$. There's no way I would have paid 25$ for these things, but I'm glad I have them! At any rate, I got 115$ worth of shoes I'll actually wear for 68$!!!

Finally, I replaced my wig this week and received a generous package of quality bath salts. I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy a 350$ wig in order to get free bath salts, but they were a good compromise for the fact that this year they weren't giving me 10% off my wig because of my medical condition. I use bath salts, hence why I'm satisfied. If they'd offered me, say, hair styling products for my wig, I would have said no thanks.