A person was telling me how he just signed up for this in-store credit card and how he got such an awesome deal. Basically, anyone who signed up got this free small portable radio player of some sort that was the size of a cell phone it seemed. To him he basically got like $30 for free.

The funny thing was I passed by a store not too long after and was surprised that I saw that exact same player for sale. Wouldn’t you know it, the price was $1 and there was a stack of them. And no, I didn’t end up telling him that.

You always have to think too as if the guy is willing to throw in all these little items for free just how much are they really worth? Buying a cell phone is a great example as many times dealers say they throw in all these phone holders and extra goodies that are worth over $50 yet you can probably find them in places like dollar stores as well.

Seminars and workshops are the most prolific examples too I’d say as companies often clamor that just for attending you get these high valued items for free. Similarly, they are probably only worth few dollars in the market.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

A person was telling me about a radio show she was listening to today. One of the topic apparently dealt with a police officer who was a regular visitor to a particular Starbucks and he would always receive free coffee. One day there was a management change and the store decided to not give the person free coffee anymore.

As a result, the police officer apparently told the manager not to expect him and his team to come right away if they call for help. This then generated a conversation between us about whether or not one thinks that was a bad business decision as it probably costs the company barely anything anyways as an extra guarantee you will be on the person’s good side when you need their services to make sure they will do a good job.

I was inclined to think that this wasn’t even a business issue as opposed to an ethics one. This type of issue is actually very common the more I thought about it. Example, for various services if people don’t feel that you tipped them to their standards then next time they will simply give a below standard effort. Doesn’t really make too much sense when you think about. I can see not wanting to work/perform above what is expected though as that would be in-line with what the other person is offering.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.