Buy One Shoe, Get One Free

Shoppers argue economics

Airhead: It’s a good deal. You get one shoe and the second one is free.

Chicken Little: Aside from not being able to use one on its own, I bet they double the price first so you pay the normal price. Hoodwink.

Airhead: Forget the numeracy. The literacy makes me laugh. That’s persuasive.

Chicken Little: And you’re a sucker for shoes.

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Voice-over

Campaigns.

Buy one, get one free.

Customer thinks, “Buy none and get none free..”

Could we be entering a new era though?

Buy none and get one free?

Economies of scale apply to manufactured goods. Cost drops slowly.

For digital goods, though, the economy of scale is not progressive and linear, the cost drop falls off a cliff. See interview with Chris Anderson.

…

DIY

Eric, helpless at doing it himself, drops in on Harry who is boatbuilding, to borrow some tools.

...

Eric: Have you got a measuring tape?

Harry: Do I have a measuring tape? Never go anywhere without one. Always something to measure.

Eric: Thought so. Just your sort. Gotta saw?

Harry: Might have. But what sort? A cabinet saw? Hacksaw? Pruning saw?

Eric: Just a saw.

Harry: Not all saws are the same. Jesus.

Eric: He was a carpenter too. Also, didn’t live long. I’ve always said taking up carpentry is dangerous for the health.

Harry: Most people do a bit DIY on Sundays. What do you do with yours?

Eric: Sundays? I shop.

__________

Voiceover

Harry repeats Eric’s question, “Do I have a measuring tape?” Of course he does, so the questioning repetition is a teasing retort, a jibe.

Yet he changes strategies to scoff at Eric by challenging him to describe the kind of saw he needs. Eric acquiesces, doesn’t rise the bait, doesn’t want to betray his ignorance perhaps, by maintaining his naïve role: “ Just a saw.”

This pushes the irascible Harry over the edge. “Jesus.”

Eric responds with some amusing false logic: that carpenters die young because Christ didn't live long. There is a suggestion he may be waving the red flag to the bull by stating flatly that on Sundays, he goes shopping.

...