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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> Uh..."buy 1, get 1 free" doesn't mean "buy 1, pay for 2". it means
>> buy one, pay 1/2. at least, that's how it works at the local grocery
>> store.
>
> I don't follow.
Items marked "buy one, get one free" are, in practise, "half off". You
aren't required to take the free item, but since the advertised price
works out to getting X for the normal price of one, they divide the
total price evenly among the items.
> Sure. But your local Tesco is going to buy (and transport) 12,000 tins
> of beans (or whatever) no matter what, so how many of them *you* buy is
> irrelevant. And yet, if you buy 10 of them, they give you 10% off the
> price. (Or, more accurately, if you buy less than 10 they charge you
> extra.)
>
Not quite. Supermarkets do vary how much product X they carry based on
demand. They are required by law to discard anything expired, so if
they consistently have too much, they're losing a *lot* more money.
As for 10% less vs. extra, let's see if I can come up with a useful
thought experiment...
Suppose you start out selling pencils for two cents each. As time goes
by, you find that there are two sorts of customers: one habitually buys
one or two, and another in large batches that are always even multiples
of ten. Now, when *you* order them from the factory, it's in batches of
a thousand. It's more paperwork, hence expense, for you to service the
single-item buyer. The guy who buys in bulk costs you less money. You
decide to encourage him to buy more from you by giving his purchase
habit a discount. Are you charging the singles-buyer are more than
before? No.
--
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.freesitespace.net
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