from the oh-really? dept
Scott Wetterling was the first of a bunch of you to send in one of the many stories about how when 7-Eleven offers free slurpees,
their sales of slurpees goes up. They say this is "odd behavior," but I don't buy that all. Free has been a compelling part of getting people to buy stuff for ages, even if that involves buying what is free. We've certainly seen this in other fields as well, such as when Cory Smith took his free MP3s off of his website... and immediately
saw his iTunes sales plummet. People berate the use of free because they don't understand how it works. And, then, when it does work, they describe the behavior as "odd." Perhaps it's not odd at all once you realize how it works.
Filed Under: economics, free, purchases
