>>Very true. Along the same lines as the offer you are describing. I sometimes ask the sales clerk, when the offer is buy one get one free, if I can buy one at half price and only get one. The person on the other end usually looks at me in a very strange way.
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>I have seen similar offers here in Bolivia. To me, this means, more or less, that they want to force me to buy two items instead of one. That sort of "offer" doesn't leave me very enthusiastic.

Hi Hilmar,

Half of my life these days takes place in the retail world (yes, it's like a parallel universe), and I have been privileged enough to gain understanding into these otherwise non-sensical practices.

One of the most important things in retail is inventory rotation (aka "inventory turns"), which affects cash-flow directly.

It makes more sense for a retail (and especially a volume-based) operation to sell an item before 3 months at no profit (and even at a loss sometimes) than to have that item take up shelf real estate for more time, hence the crazy sales you see at stores at the end of a season (50% or more off).

Now, if you tell a customer s/he can buy 2 for the price of 1, the customer's perception is that of a 50% discount, which most customers drool at, and at the same time instead of moving just one item in a single transaction, you're moving TWO. To the retailer already willing to sell at no profit the more product they get rid of in the least time, the better.

I think it's a win-win situation if it's an item you may need more than one of: you get the goods at cost and the retailer moves move merchandise. Otherwise, you won't be saving any money.