Beware of Buy one, Get one deals
By tlb0822
@tlb0822 (1410)
United States
October 27, 2007 7:00pm CST
I never knew just how lousy of a deal that buy one, get one deals were until i started working at JcPennys. At least once a month the store will have deals that are buy one, get one for a 1 or 88 cents. The catch to these deals is the fact that you have to buy one at regular price. If you go to the store on a regular bases you notice that things are usually always on sale. So the other day i decided to do a little research of my own. The store advertised a buy one get one sale for a weekend. So i just jotted down a few items and their prices., and when the weekend came i compared the sale price to that of the buy one get one. The sale price on a regular day was actually cheaper then the buy one get one. Then it dawned on me that, duh, you pay full price for one item. Some deals may be great. It's all about numbers. So the next time you see one of these sales advertised, compare the sale price to buying 2 with one at the original price. That will tell you if you are actually getting a good deal or not.
3 people like this
3 responses
@ctrymuziklvr (11057)
• United States
28 Oct 07
I don't like to disagree with everyone but not all the buy one get one sales have a catch or are not worth it. I work in a CVS store and I'm always watching the prices because I'm a very frugal shopper. Some call me cheap..lol...We always have the buy one get one sales and they are always worth it and the prices haven't been marked up for the sales. My main job is doing the price changes throughout the store so I'm well aware of the prices. For instance we sell Tide for $5.99 and last weekend it was buy one get one free and the price was $5.99...our regular price. Maybe different stores have different practices but that's not he way CVS works.
@MGjhaud (23240)
• Philippines
30 Oct 07
I think that for some stores, that’s one of their deceiving marketing strategies. I think we discussed it in one of our business management class. Like a buy one take one appliances, the prize for that buy-one-take-one thing can buy lots of appliances in other stores. My teacher in business management class before encountered it and he in fact warn the company to sue them if they don’t get his money back. Hehe… So you guys better think of it before buying there talks.
@vokey9472 (1486)
• United States
28 Oct 07
Yeah, I hate the tricks that stores play to get people in. When I worked at Lane Bryant(years and years ago) I got in trouble for telling a regular to never ever buy the new items the first week. The first week we got something in, we would sell it at regular price but after the first weekend, we would put them on sale for as much as 75% off the regular price.
Another thing I noticed was that sometimes we would put signs up on a rack that read "Two for $50", usually jeans. It sounded great, $25 a pair. The reality of it was most people didn't bother to look at the regular price which was $30 a pair. It wasn't that great a savings.
I always look at the regular price and compare it to the "sale" price. Amazingly, you will find that a lot of stuff is only $2-$10 less than the regular price. Not that great a bargain. However, if I really want something, it doesn't really matter to me how much it is. :)
@shooting_star (384)
• Philippines
28 Oct 07
I've seen these signs at JCPenney. I guess it's a matter of reading the smaller/finer print. Because what you'll see at first is the Buy One Take One, you get attracted to it and then you'll see the smaller print of "$1/88c for the second item" or something like that. Thanks for the tip (that the sale price on a regular day is cheaper than buy one get one). :) And I also noticed, there was an item I bought that was 40% off on a weekday. When I went on the weekend, it was down to 30% off. So I did get a better deal during the weekday.
