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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