>> I don't follow.
> 
> It means if it says "Buy one for $10, get one free", then you can buy 
> one for $5.
> 
> Altho I think that's more like "Two for $10" being "One for $5", now 
> that I think of it. I'm not sure "buy one get one free" always means you 
> can get one for half price.

Round there, the deal is like this:

   The item is priced at £10. If you buy one, it costs you £10. If you 
buy two, it costs you £10. If you buy three, it costs £20, if you buy 
four, it costs £20. And so on.

In other words, the item's "real" sale price is actually £5, but if you 
only buy one, there's a 100% surcharge. But they like to phrase it as 
"if you buy two, you get the second one absolutely free". (Which, 
clearly, is untrue.)

Similar offers include "3 for 2", "buy 9 get 1 free", and so on.

> If you buy fewer (meaning more people buy the same number), they pay 
> more rent for storing them, they pay more in credit card transaction 
> fees, they pay more interest on the money used to buy them in the first 
> place, etc.

Well, I'm not in retail. I very much doubt the things you're talking 
about are financially significant, but I don't know. However, I would 
strongly suspect that the true reason is simply to convince people to 
buy more than they otherwise would (possibly more than they actually 
need). Some people (like my mother) mistakenly believe that buying an 
item at a lower price per item necessarily equals saving money.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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