How stupid do businesses think the average consumer is? Or maybe a better question is how is it that we could possibly be so stupid as consumers? I recently purchased a package deal for something. Packages always sound like a great deal, because well, we've been trained as a society that the word package equals the word "deal". But do they really? The package I purchased ended up saving me a total of $15 on a $325 purchase. That's a roughly 5% savings or $3 per item purchased. I was planning on only buying one, so in reality I didn't save $15, I actually cost myself $270. Did this business think I wouldn't catch the rip off, or am I just dumb enough not to question it and go ahead with a larger purchase than I wanted?
Did you know that most movie theaters' concessions stands offer package deals that actually don't save you a dime? I mean nothing. You order package 1 for a large popcorn, large soda, and a candy and it costs you the exact same amount it would have if you ordered them separately. When I asked the 16 year old, iPod toting, cell-phone texting, baggy pants wearing, nose-ringed, purple haired, pissed off at society because her mommy and daddy didn't buy her tickets to the "I'm obsessed with Edward" Twilight concert......**taking a deep breath**.....she told me in as few a words as humanly possible, with as much inflection as female voice #1 on my rent a car's GPS, and with zero emotion whatsoever, "Packages are easier for us to enter." Seriously? You just got me to buy the 2.5 gallon drink, that I didn't want, the bucket o' popcorn that I'll be picking out of my teeth for the next 8 hours, and a box of jujube's whose internal package was half as big as the box it came in all under the pretext of getting a deal when in reality I didn't save anything. Fantastic. I hope you enjoy mopping up 2.3 gallons of the drink when I accidentally spill it during the movie and good luck sweeping up 2/3 of the bucket-o-popcorn that spilled when I tried to open my "half as big as they looked in the display case" box of jujube's.
How about the places that offer you this precious deal. But 1 for $2 or buy 5 for $10. I actually saw that recently. Other than in Kentucky or West Virginia, does anyone actually think they are getting something special there? What in the hell is the business owner thinking he is getting away with on that one? Carnivals are famous for doing idiotic things like that, but I can at least give them the benefit of having a low IQ and therefore actually believing they are giving us a deal when in reality they are not. Yes sir, I will take the 5-fer deal to ride the tilt-o-wheel.
But let's be clear, these things work because we all want a deal. We all want to think we just got one over on the man because what would have normally cost us $5.75, now only costs us $5.50. We absolutely hate to think we left money on the table, so we get sucked right into the package deal. Well not anymore. I refuse to do it. I'll order my Big Mac, Fries, and drink separately and gladly pay the extra $.45 to do it. I refuse to give the tilt-o-wheel man $10 when I only wanted to give him $2. I will not get that box of jujube's when all I really wanted was a small drink and popcorn. Okay, maybe that's going too far....I really do like the jujube's.
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