Oh Consumerism!

Alright everyone, let’s be honest, we all love free stuff. I know I do! There is a very good word in Russian that describes it – халява (read “halyava” or basically swag/freebies).

There are different kinds of swag, there are freebies that you get for running marathons (like mugs or T-shirts), but if you come to think of it, those aren’t really free, because you paid a fee to run the marathon in the first place.

Then there are samples (some people call them testers, I have no idea why, because those two words have totally different meanings). Samples sometimes come from a store, or you can get them in your mail. And samples are a good way to try put new products if you are serious about buying something. If you are like me, then you probably have a drawer full of shampoo/conditioner/body wash/lotion samples that are really hard to get rid of, because they just don’t end. Yes, maybe I am a sample hoarder, but at least I use them! I am working my way through all of those shampoo/conditioner samples that I’ve been receiving in the mail.

Then, there are samples that come with purchase, the so called Free Gift, and this is what I am going to tell you about. Actually I am going to tell you what not to do when getting Free Gift with purchase.

- If it says 1 per customer, it means 1 per customer. I don’t care if you are from China or California, it is 1 per customer. And if you think I don’t remember faces, oh you are so wrong! It’s all a game for me, after you’ve been coming to the counter 3 days in a row and purchasing the same thing every time! I also can’t imagine what you are going to do with 3 or 4 of those free gift bags? Donate them to Goodwill? How are you going to use up all the product?

- If there was another freebie in addition to the gift and you didn’t get it, don’t come asking for it for free, no one will give it to you. You can make another purchase, and we’ll all pretend we see each other for the first time. But do you realize how pathetic you look asking for that freebie? Especially if you start crying? So please don’t do that! There will be another free gift and more extra freebies.

- When you are nice, everyone else will be nice to you! No one cancelled “thank you”, just remember that!

- And finally, sales associates are there to help you, not to scare you away, so don’t be shy!

Finally, a couple days ago there was a “Beauty Bag” available on Target.com – and the ridiculousness of the situation and all the people who wanted to get it was rather comical. A lot of customers wrote on Target’s Facebook wall claiming there were problems receiving that beauty bag, but one comment stood out to me the most:

“Stop complaining that you can’t receive your samples! If you’ve been sitting refreshing your browser for the past hour trying to get the bag, you are probably a hoarder and have too many of those samples anyways!”

Kudos to the author of that message and good luck to you!

Xo,

Z

PS. There are usually free samples available at Target.com or Walmart.com. I also use mommysavesbig.com and sweetfreestuff.com! Good luck with your freebies!