BOGO insanity or...no you can't get three discounts at once.

[BookstoreEscapee]

When B&N does BOGO sales (they do one for DVDs every summer and sometimes for selected books - a specific title list from a publisher, or the B&N Classics, etc.) we can't even use our employee discount on it. It's one or the other (the BOGO is generally the better deal, unless you find some particularly cheap DVDs). If you have a member card, though, you do still get the 10% off (I have a few phone numbers of people who have member cards for the rare occasions when it would be a better deal than my employee discount - my brother and a couple former coworkers who buy enough new releases and other stuff to warrant having a member card).

He actually tried to tell me that a store's objective was to reduce product-on-hand by any means possible.

Well, if that's the case why not just toss all the inventory in the dumpster, hang up a Gone Fishing sign and call it a day?


And if you're going to pull the recession card, perhaps you should be talking about something a little more essential than video games..?

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Our sales promotions are programmed into our computer so when I ring up your items, the computer determines which promotion to give you, typically it will take the one that gives you the better deal.

Now there is a way I could override that and give multiple promotions and stuff, but management usually frowns on that.

[mattm04]

Our BOGO sales are programed in the POS system to give the cheapest free or any other limits on the sale. A manager can override it but that never happens unless it is a strange circumstance or they are spineless.

[Nekojin]

I had three books, two the same price and one cheaper (buy two get one), and tried to get one of the same price ones free because it was 'equal or lesser value' and that was equal, right? One "sorry, the cheapest is free", "Aww...", and quick lesson in economics from Mom later, I was a sad LadyA...untill I remembered I was still getting a free book, so then I was happy again quickly.

I think I can still claim the 'too young to know better' excuse there, though. And I only needed the one time to learn.

Every BOGO sale that I've ever been to would have allowed that. Border's Books certainly does. The way they work BOGO sales is like this:

Hypothetical Book list:

A - $12
B - $12
C - $11
D - $10
E - $10
F - $6
G - $2

You pay for A, and BOGO B. You pay for C, and BOGO D. You pay for E, and BOGO F. And finally, you pay for G, and have the option to BOGO something that's $2 or less.

I've seriously never been to any BOGO sale where they would make you pay for A through D, and then get E through G free.

[LadyAndreca]

I've seriously never been to any BOGO sale where they would make you pay for A through D, and then get E through G free.

Odd. Hubby and I tend to make separate purchases for BOGO sales around here because so many places do.

[EricKei]

Seconded on what Andreca said. I usually ask the clerk to double check to make sure that the sale is going the way Nekojin described it. I have indeed found computer that will just tally everything up and do the cheapest out of ALL the items for free...which, when you think about it, is probably exactly how the companies WANT these sales to work.

[Andara Bledin]

Re: Andreca's sale

I had three books, two the same price and one cheaper (buy two get one), and tried to get one of the same price ones free because it was 'equal or lesser value' and that was equal, right?

She said "buy two, get one" so in that situation, the third most expensive would be the free one.

^-.-^

[LadyAndreca]

Re: Andreca's sale

She said "buy two, get one" so in that situation, the third most expensive would be the free one.

^-.-^

No, the sale was 'buy one get one'. Don't ask me why I didn't have a fourth book, this was ten, twelve years ago and I don't remember that part. Maybe I did, maybe I went back to get a fourth book. Dunno.

Back to the present...I'm FAR more used to BOGO sales where the cashier scans everything and the computer automatically discounts the cheapest of all the applicable items in the sale. As I said, my husband and I split the order when the difference is enough to matter. I don't think I've ever been to a store where I could group the books. But then, I haven't found a nice independent bookstore around here... *sigh*

Probably a good thing for my wallet, though.

[Andara Bledin]

Borders will group the books for us when we hit their Buy X get 1 Free sales.

We usually have them sorted before we get to the register, but if we don't, they'll sort them from most to least expensive, and then hit the discount button after every X for the Free one. All of the clerks we've had have been very proactive about giving the best discount they have available.

Actually, we just hit one of those with a Buy 2 Get 1 Free over at GameCrazy. We just wanted to pick up 1 game, but the clerk pointed out that if we got a second one, then we could grab a third one for free. They'll do the same thing as Borders and give you the 3rd most expensive for free, even if you had more items to buy. Hell, the guy even pointed out the prices and suggested buying something in the same range for the best discount.

^-.-^