...or it's yours for FREE!

Ok, time for another pointless rant. You've all heard the marketing where a retailer offers to beat anyone's advertised price or they will give you the product for free. If you're from LA, you know about Larry the mattress guy who uses this technique... (You're killing me Larry!)

I'm in Binghamton, NY this weekend and I heard a used car advertiser on the radio saying he will beat any advertised price or he will give you the car for free plus an extra $5000. "5 Gs and the keys!" Ridiculous!

And let me tell you why. Do you really think these people are going to give you the product for free? Let's say I want to buy a 06 Accord from the guy. He's selling one for $18000. I find the same one advertised for $16500. So his choices are to sell it to me for less than that (beat the advertised price) or give me the car plus $5000. Uh, gee. What's he gonna do?! Will he take maybe a couple hundred dollar hit on the car or lose the car and five grand? Or will Larry sell me a mattress for a little less than he would like, or will he give me the mattress and lose all the money he had in it?

This is just the stupidest marketing ploy I've ever heard. Am I the only one that sees through this crap? Am I the only one so entirely furious about this? Ok, I'm not really that mad, but come on! I think we're smarter than this.

I guess one thing these people could be saying is, "I can sell this product for cheaper than anyone else because I paid less for it than other retailers, but you have to do the work to get the cheap price. You have to find it cheaper and prove it or I'm taking you to the bank."

Nice.