I’ve been watching a lot of “gen alpha can’t do basic maths, spelling etc) and I have no doubt they’d buy the right handed pencils because it’s a “much better deal”
First some background: My wife’s dad owns a couple fireworks stores. One sells items individually, the other sells everything as buy one get one free because it is right next to a competitor that uses that model. Fun fact about stores that sell everything as BOGO all the time… the prices are just double. You’re just paying for two. That’s the whole model. My father in law hates it too and wishes we didnt need to do it to compete with the other store. It’s not only not a deal, it’s arguably worse because you have* to buy two of the same visual display, meaning you’re just watching the same thing twice for no good reason.
*We don’t actually make anyone buy two of anything. We also tell them they can mix-and-match, i.e. buy one item and get a different item with the same price free. And we don’t really advertise it, because it actually pisses some people off, but if you just want one of the item, you can get it for “half price”. No problem at all. It makes no difference at all to me. I don’t even have to do anything fancy with the registers. We just ring up every item individually. They’re all priced exactly the same as they are at the other store. It’s all an illusion.
But there is a certain percentage of shoppers that absolutely, positively, will not buy a product unless they are “getting a deal”, and those people are univerally bad at math. We sell a select set of items as BOGO or mix and match at the other store too and those people will only buy those items. My father in law will even tell them that no one needs to watch the same thing twice. We actually use the stupidity of the BOGO model as a selling point at the other store. But that’s all that some people want. The people that shop at the BOGO store will come in saying they went to our other store (not knowing they’re related) and everything was so expensive compared to them and they didnt have any good deals, then buy a cart full of shit at THE EXACT SAME PRICE PER PIECE. It’s absurd.
So anyway, back to the fun story. I had to cover as a salesman and cashier at the BOGO store once. A couple came in, he wanted a bunch of fire crackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, etc. The typical play stuff. His wife wasnt into all that, she just wanted to see something inexpensive and pretty. I showed her videos of a few smaller items that I thought she’d like and she really liked one in particular. It was the only one I had left on the shelf though. I tried to look around and see if there was a good mix and match to go with it, but it was at a less common price point, and I couldn’t find anything. So I told her that since I couldn’t find her another or a mix and match, I’d give it to her for half of the tag price (again, that’s also just… the normal price). She was very happy with that. She just wanted the one pretty thing anyway.
So we get up to the register and I started to scan out their cart… two rolls of firecrackers, 8 roman candles, 2 packs of bottle rockets, etc. Then I scanned her item. He asked where the second one was. I explained that that was the last one and we couldn’t find a mix and match so I was just going to charge her half of the tag price for it. He said, dead serious, “if I don’t get anything free with it, I’m not buying it.” He told me just to set it aside and put it back. They only thing she wanted. Becuase half price wasnt as good as buy one get one free… I ended up just handing it to her and telling her to take it. She has an ass for a husband, a stupid one at that. She deserved to see something pretty.
It’s not just new generations, these are basic marketing strategies that have existed forever. It’s manipulative, people see a smaller number and think it’s better, without even considering the value for a moment. Preying on the spur of the moment decision.
Fair point, but Americans score lower than several comparable countries, despite a higher GDP which one would hope would correlate to education. There are several reasons for this, but as an American, I’m just mentioning that it’s not a generational thing as much as a countrywide thing.
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1
I think it’s nice to realize that people aren’t hardwired to understand math. There’s been no evolutionary selection for an understanding of the distributive property or knowledge of a dot product. Math can be difficult and we need to devote more resources to teaching it. Gen Alpha isn’t inherently less intelligent. Math is just hard and this person is probably seeing American Gen Alphas that have grown up in a society that does not value or invest in education the way it should. I don’t think that’s over generalizing as much as it’s drawing conclusions from available data.
you say that, but i always see europeans whine so much whenever imperial units are used anywhere because they can’t figure out how to multiply by .3048
I’ve been watching a lot of “gen alpha can’t do basic maths, spelling etc) and I have no doubt they’d buy the right handed pencils because it’s a “much better deal”
Ok story time from the Fireworks stores.
First some background: My wife’s dad owns a couple fireworks stores. One sells items individually, the other sells everything as buy one get one free because it is right next to a competitor that uses that model. Fun fact about stores that sell everything as BOGO all the time… the prices are just double. You’re just paying for two. That’s the whole model. My father in law hates it too and wishes we didnt need to do it to compete with the other store. It’s not only not a deal, it’s arguably worse because you have* to buy two of the same visual display, meaning you’re just watching the same thing twice for no good reason.
*We don’t actually make anyone buy two of anything. We also tell them they can mix-and-match, i.e. buy one item and get a different item with the same price free. And we don’t really advertise it, because it actually pisses some people off, but if you just want one of the item, you can get it for “half price”. No problem at all. It makes no difference at all to me. I don’t even have to do anything fancy with the registers. We just ring up every item individually. They’re all priced exactly the same as they are at the other store. It’s all an illusion.
But there is a certain percentage of shoppers that absolutely, positively, will not buy a product unless they are “getting a deal”, and those people are univerally bad at math. We sell a select set of items as BOGO or mix and match at the other store too and those people will only buy those items. My father in law will even tell them that no one needs to watch the same thing twice. We actually use the stupidity of the BOGO model as a selling point at the other store. But that’s all that some people want. The people that shop at the BOGO store will come in saying they went to our other store (not knowing they’re related) and everything was so expensive compared to them and they didnt have any good deals, then buy a cart full of shit at THE EXACT SAME PRICE PER PIECE. It’s absurd.
So anyway, back to the fun story. I had to cover as a salesman and cashier at the BOGO store once. A couple came in, he wanted a bunch of fire crackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, etc. The typical play stuff. His wife wasnt into all that, she just wanted to see something inexpensive and pretty. I showed her videos of a few smaller items that I thought she’d like and she really liked one in particular. It was the only one I had left on the shelf though. I tried to look around and see if there was a good mix and match to go with it, but it was at a less common price point, and I couldn’t find anything. So I told her that since I couldn’t find her another or a mix and match, I’d give it to her for half of the tag price (again, that’s also just… the normal price). She was very happy with that. She just wanted the one pretty thing anyway.
So we get up to the register and I started to scan out their cart… two rolls of firecrackers, 8 roman candles, 2 packs of bottle rockets, etc. Then I scanned her item. He asked where the second one was. I explained that that was the last one and we couldn’t find a mix and match so I was just going to charge her half of the tag price for it. He said, dead serious, “if I don’t get anything free with it, I’m not buying it.” He told me just to set it aside and put it back. They only thing she wanted. Becuase half price wasnt as good as buy one get one free… I ended up just handing it to her and telling her to take it. She has an ass for a husband, a stupid one at that. She deserved to see something pretty.
It’s not just new generations, these are basic marketing strategies that have existed forever. It’s manipulative, people see a smaller number and think it’s better, without even considering the value for a moment. Preying on the spur of the moment decision.
Walmart has been crazy about this over the years. Things like a big box of 45 ziplock bags cost $3.50, but 15 packs are $1.00.
People just assume that pricing will make sense and bulk purchasing is a better value, but sometimes Walmart is like “nah”.
I wish i was rich enough to fall for shit like this.
I understand it doesn’t make you rich, but still. Seems like exactly the level of wealth I could be trusted with
It’s 5 for whatever as well. That’s a sure ”great value deal” indicator
People in general, but Americans specifically, can’t do basic math. Hence the infamous 1/3 pound burger: https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/06/17/third-pound-burger-fractions/
I love how your defense of over generalizing one group instantly devolved into over generalizing a different group.
If that group is Americans, it’s pretty on brand for Lemmy.
Yeah. People on Lemmy always do that
Fuckin’ Lemmers…
Fair point, but Americans score lower than several comparable countries, despite a higher GDP which one would hope would correlate to education. There are several reasons for this, but as an American, I’m just mentioning that it’s not a generational thing as much as a countrywide thing. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1
I think it’s nice to realize that people aren’t hardwired to understand math. There’s been no evolutionary selection for an understanding of the distributive property or knowledge of a dot product. Math can be difficult and we need to devote more resources to teaching it. Gen Alpha isn’t inherently less intelligent. Math is just hard and this person is probably seeing American Gen Alphas that have grown up in a society that does not value or invest in education the way it should. I don’t think that’s over generalizing as much as it’s drawing conclusions from available data.
you say that, but i always see europeans whine so much whenever imperial units are used anywhere because they can’t figure out how to multiply by .3048
The other side to this line of logic is that Americans can’t divide by 10
that’s not how you convert from metric to imperial though. again the europeans failing at mathematics (then you divide by .3048)
edit also someone please tell me i got it wrong here i hadn’t had coffee yet and i don’t want to check that would be so funny
Lol