By Jim Hagarty
1991
The other day, I asked an employee at a building supply store where they kept their pails of drywall compound. Very helpfully, he instructed me to follow him. When we got to the right aisle, I thanked him, grabbed a small pail of plaster off the shelf and turned to leave.
“Need any drywall tape with that?” he suddenly asked me.
“No, thanks,” I answered.
“How about nails? Corner bead?”
“I have lots, thanks,” I said, a trifle irritated.
In a coffee shop on the way home, I asked the waitress for a medium regular coffee to go.
“Would you like a fresh muffin with that?” she asked me.
“No thank you,” I answered, sharply. “Not today.”
And later the same day, after I’d placed my order for a cheeseburger and milkshake at a restaurant drive-through, a woman’s voice came back on the intercom:
“Any fries with that?” she enquired.
That was it. I couldn’t take it any more.
“I don’t know,” I yelled back. “What do you think I should do?”
There was a pause.
“I think you should have some,” said the woman, calmly.
“NO THANKS!” shouted I.
When I pulled up to pay, the woman smiled as she handed me my change.
“Personally, I just can’t resist those fries,” she said.
“Well then, I tell you what,” I said, through gritted teeth.
“You buy ’em and I’ll eat ’em!”
“Have a nice day,” she said smiling, not the least bit ruffled.
And as I sat in a park, eating my lunch with no fries, I asked myself an important question:
“Is it them or is it me?”
After a little soul searching, I had my answer.
It was me.
In this competitive age, when it’s getting harder and harder to make a living, all’s fair in pursuit of more sales, I concluded. It’s what keeps our economy going.
But now I am left to wonder why this marketing technique of asking people to buy just a little bit more than they’ve already agreed to buy, isn’t a more universally used strategy.
After you’ve bought 30 cattle at a livestock barn, for example:
“Would you like any sheep with that?” the auctioneer should surely say.
Or when you’ve ordered a new truck.
“Would you like a small car with that?” would be the obvious question.
Still, I sometimes long for the good old days when merchants sent you away from their stores with a feeling they were happy you’d spent a few dollars there.
Not disappointed that you hadn’t spent enough.
