On my way to work today, as I was waiting at the junction of St George and College streets, a guy from Starbucks offered me a free sandwich sample from a tray.
Now, companies do, from time to time, offer freebies. However, I highly suspect that this morning's freebie was in some way connected to the Tim Horton's incident last week, where an employee in a London, Ontario branch was fired for giving away a timbit (a small piece of doughnut, from the hole in a regular doughnut, costing 16 cents). She was quickly rehired within hours, but not before the incident had erupted into a PR nightmare for TH. Yesterday, the Globe and Mail did an article on the case for free, or why giving out free stuff is good for PR and customer loyalty. Many companies, including Starbucks, were quick to comment that they do allow their employees to give out the occasional freebie. Of course, coffee and snacks at Starbucks are significantly more expensive than at Tim Hortons, so the 'free sample' costs has already been worked in...
Still, though the small bit of sandwich was just so-so, it made my morning. Free stuff does that to people, even when people do know that the price of the freebie is next to nothing. It's a curious phenomenon, isn't it?
I think people have this quick internal calculator that dynamically rates the quality of the food (or drink) to the price paid for it, or at least I do. If I paid a dollar for a muffin, say, I'm expecting a certain quality of muffin. If I had paid three dollars for it, it had better be a damn fantastic muffin and very often I would be disappointed. But if I paid 50 cents for it, I would probably be satisfied with even a mediocre muffin, and if it's free...
It's not just free food giveaways. People love free stuff. Buy X and get Y free. Never mind if you actually don't need Y, it's free, isn't it? Free stuff is seductive.
When Japanese department stores first set up shop in Singapore a couple of decades back (I think Isetan was the first? Or was it Yaohan?), just like the parent stores back in Japan, these department stores started giving out free food samples in the basement supermarket. I was so impressed as a kid, but then, over the years, they stopped giving out free samples, or reduced it to a really tiny piece, barely enough for you to get a taste of the product. I thought either operating costs went up or the management has gotten more penny-pinching. Or maybe, free samples just seem much more significant and bigger when you're a kid. Most likely, I concluded later, Singaporeans must have abused this free food sampling system, something I'm not surprised by. Why do I say this?
When I visited Japan as an adult, the department stores there were giving out free food samples. And it wasn't just a tiny, barely there sample; it was a generous portion, one that I felt almost embarrassed to accept because I then felt obliged to buy their product. And it wasn't only one or two little tables in the supermarket that were giving out free stuff; there were rows of tables in the supermarket handing out free samples. Outside the supermarket area, there would be other little outlets selling everything from cooked food to packaged snacks to specialty foods, and samples galore. All over, from glitzy Tokyo mega-malls to old-fashioned stores in Tohoku to quiet departmental stores in Hokkaido to tourist souvenir shops, they were giving out free stuff.
And I stood there, stuffing my face and planning my second trip round the supermarket, thinking, "This was what I remembered as a kid. No, this is even better! Much better! Bloody Singaporeans, why couldn't they have been more gracious and not abused the freebie system such that now we hardly get free samples anymore?"
Now, I know that the cost of the free stuff has already been 'worked in', and stuff in Japan is very pricey, and I did get some odd stuff that I never used, but still, I went around Japan with a huge smile and happy feeling.
Free stuff is seductive.
Now, companies do, from time to time, offer freebies. However, I highly suspect that this morning's freebie was in some way connected to the Tim Horton's incident last week, where an employee in a London, Ontario branch was fired for giving away a timbit (a small piece of doughnut, from the hole in a regular doughnut, costing 16 cents). She was quickly rehired within hours, but not before the incident had erupted into a PR nightmare for TH. Yesterday, the Globe and Mail did an article on the case for free, or why giving out free stuff is good for PR and customer loyalty. Many companies, including Starbucks, were quick to comment that they do allow their employees to give out the occasional freebie. Of course, coffee and snacks at Starbucks are significantly more expensive than at Tim Hortons, so the 'free sample' costs has already been worked in...
Still, though the small bit of sandwich was just so-so, it made my morning. Free stuff does that to people, even when people do know that the price of the freebie is next to nothing. It's a curious phenomenon, isn't it?
I think people have this quick internal calculator that dynamically rates the quality of the food (or drink) to the price paid for it, or at least I do. If I paid a dollar for a muffin, say, I'm expecting a certain quality of muffin. If I had paid three dollars for it, it had better be a damn fantastic muffin and very often I would be disappointed. But if I paid 50 cents for it, I would probably be satisfied with even a mediocre muffin, and if it's free...
It's not just free food giveaways. People love free stuff. Buy X and get Y free. Never mind if you actually don't need Y, it's free, isn't it? Free stuff is seductive.
When Japanese department stores first set up shop in Singapore a couple of decades back (I think Isetan was the first? Or was it Yaohan?), just like the parent stores back in Japan, these department stores started giving out free food samples in the basement supermarket. I was so impressed as a kid, but then, over the years, they stopped giving out free samples, or reduced it to a really tiny piece, barely enough for you to get a taste of the product. I thought either operating costs went up or the management has gotten more penny-pinching. Or maybe, free samples just seem much more significant and bigger when you're a kid. Most likely, I concluded later, Singaporeans must have abused this free food sampling system, something I'm not surprised by. Why do I say this?
When I visited Japan as an adult, the department stores there were giving out free food samples. And it wasn't just a tiny, barely there sample; it was a generous portion, one that I felt almost embarrassed to accept because I then felt obliged to buy their product. And it wasn't only one or two little tables in the supermarket that were giving out free stuff; there were rows of tables in the supermarket handing out free samples. Outside the supermarket area, there would be other little outlets selling everything from cooked food to packaged snacks to specialty foods, and samples galore. All over, from glitzy Tokyo mega-malls to old-fashioned stores in Tohoku to quiet departmental stores in Hokkaido to tourist souvenir shops, they were giving out free stuff.
And I stood there, stuffing my face and planning my second trip round the supermarket, thinking, "This was what I remembered as a kid. No, this is even better! Much better! Bloody Singaporeans, why couldn't they have been more gracious and not abused the freebie system such that now we hardly get free samples anymore?"
Now, I know that the cost of the free stuff has already been 'worked in', and stuff in Japan is very pricey, and I did get some odd stuff that I never used, but still, I went around Japan with a huge smile and happy feeling.
Free stuff is seductive.
No comments:
Post a Comment