At some point over this past weekend, I found myself in line at a local store. At the other checkout, an older gentleman was purchasing a bottle of multivitamins. The brand happened to be BOGO (buy one, get one free) so the cashier told him he could have a second bottle for free. He said he didn’t need it. She tried to encourage him that it was free so he should take it anyway. He again said, “Thank you but I don’t need it today.” While a part of me thought, ‘he should take that free bottle’, another part of me thought, ‘good for him for not taking what he doesn’t need’. While I didn’t quite understand why he didn’t follow one of my favorite mottos which is “If it’s free, it’s for me”, what happened next moved me from “I didn’t quite understand” to “did that just really happen?”
A lady, who was in line two people back from the gentleman, went and picked up one bottle of the same multivitamins. When the cashier rung up her items, the conversation went like this:
Evelyn (the cashier): Your total is 27.46 please.
Customer: No. That’s not right. Those vitamins should be free. You need to take that off my bill.
Evelyn: Do you have a coupon?
Customer: No, but they were BOGO right? And that man didn’t get his free one. So I want his.
Evelyn: Excuse me?
Customer: That older man who was just here, he bought one and I want the free one he didn’t get.
Wow. Did I just hear that right?
They went back and forth on it for a few minutes with Evelyn trying to explain to the lady that she didn’t purchase vitamins to entitle her to a free bottle and the lady trying to explain to Evelyn that the store expected the man to take it and since he didn’t, it was up for grabs for everyone else. And a small scene ensued and Evelyn called the manager. I left at that point since I was already 30 minutes late so I have no idea if the lady left with free vitamins or not.
As I drove away, it occurred to me that I really have no idea what the right thing would be in this situation. And then I wondered if my ethical compass was really that broken that such a small thing was causing me such great pause.
On the one hand, since the vitamins were BOGO and they probably expected the bottle to leave the store at some point during the day, maybe it doesn’t matter to them who takes it? On the other hand, the woman had not fulfilled the purchase portion of the BOGO agreement so she had no rightful claim to the bottle in the first place so taking them for free is sorta like stealing, isn’t it? But on the other, other hand, the lady get points for being creative but on the other, other, other hand, I have to wonder what kind of nerve it takes to actually expect a store to honor a request for half of someone else’s BOGO. In the end, I was no closer to sorting it out than I had been when it happened. I gave up on testing my ethical aptitude and moved on to a fun weekend that didn’t require quite so much thought.
I am interested, though, in your thoughts. Should the lady be the proud owner of free vitamins or is half a BOGO a real no-no?
I am interested, though, in your thoughts. Should the lady be the proud owner of free vitamins or is half a BOGO a real no-no?
Well this depends on what local store you were attending because sometimes free really isn't free- it's half price. So for example, at Food Lion and most every other grocery store, an item isn't really "free" it's half of the original price. However, at CVS free is free when they advertise B1G1 free because you always pay full price for the first item, not half price, whether you get one or not. If I were said cashier, I would have explained to the man the policy and that he could either take the extra bottle and donate it himself or lose out on his free items.
ReplyDeleteI give huge props to the woman in the line for creative thinking- we wouldn't have questioned her if the man had paid for the bottles and then turned to give her one since he didn't need them.
It's all in knowing the rules of the game...
I also think the store actually comes out to the good when the man doesn't take the extra bottle because they get the refund from the manufacturer AND keep the product on the shelves.
ReplyDeleteGood point! You do really have to know the rules. He paid full price so the second one really was free. My guess is that the store kept it so they could, in theory, make 6 more dollars from the bottle that he didn't take.
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