Monday, December 18, 2017

Bad and Weird Shopping Deals

Buy one get one free. Half off. Free X with purchase of Y.  These are deals every shopper comes across in the store.  While shopping in the Philippines I have come across some downright weird and perplexing deals.



Free peanut butter with purchase of toilet paper.  Which Filipinos even buy toilet paper? I should like to meet them. And what has toilet paper to do with peanut butter? Free toilet cleaner would have been a more useful item to pair with toilet paper.


Exchange 200 US dollars and get two batteries?  Or is it a whole pack of 4, 8, or 16 AA batteries? Either way it does not make sense. One wants the best exchange rate when changing bills. That should be the only consideration when making that transaction.



Buy 10 and take 1?  10???  Who needs 11 toaster ovens?  And who would spend 74,000 pesos to get one free toaster oven?  You could buy one toaster oven and use the change to buy the new and overpriced iPhone X.

I think these bad deals might be symptomatic of deeper culture issues. Symptomatic of the need to get the best deal possible at the expense of someone else. I can't count how many times I have heard, "Can I get a discount?" Symptomatic also of how gullible Filipinos are. None of the above deals are deals. They offer nothing useful to the consumer. Yet some will be take in or wish they could be taken in by these supposedly good deals.

These horrible and plain stupid deals are more proof that businesses in the Philippines do not care about the consumer at any level except to grab his cash. They are merely trying to get rid of overstock with no regard to the needs of their customers. And why should they bother to care?

Filipinos are not smart shoppers. They are easily taken in by fake deals and fake news.

2 comments:

  1. Don't forget the stores also have to get a DTI permit to offer anything free in the buy one take one deals or anything else "free" with a purchase.

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