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Irrationality
May. 31st, 2014 10:10 amScenario A: While shopping, I decide that one dinner will involve Food Product A, in our favourite flavour, flavour X. It's a little bit more expensive than most dinners, but I know how much it is, and am happy to pay it for a treat. I go to where Food Product A lives, where I find that Flavour Y, and only Flavour Y, is on special offer. We both dislike Flavour Y very much indeed, and it is not an option. Because Flavour Y is on special offer, Flavour X suddenly seems very expensive indeed, and something of a rip-off. I do not buy Food Product A at all, despite it being no more expensive than I'd expected, and make new plans.
Scenario B: I want to buy Product B, which is a perishable item. I know how much Product B costs. When I get there, I see that Product B is on a multibuy special offer (2-for-1, or 3-for-2 or such like.) I do not want two (or three, or whatever the deal is.) It is a perishable item, and there is no way we could get through it. However, because I could get 2 (or 3) for a better price, just buying a single one for the normal, non-discounted price, seems like a waste of money. I do not buy Product B.
Scenario C: We find ourselves in need of a few items while out without my purse. Pellinor has money on him, but no supermarket loyalty card. Two small local supermarkets are within easy reach of us: the one we possess an absent loyalty card for (Sainsbury's), and one for which we have no loyalty card (Co-op.) Wherever we go, we will get no loyalty card points and no bundle of money-off vouchers, which sometimes (occasionally) have given us several pounds worth of vouchers just for buying one small, cheap item. However, shopping in Sainsbury's, where we should get these things but won't, somehow feels worse than shopping in Co-op, where we never do. I fight the urge to say that we have to shop in the Co-op as a result.
Is it just me, or does anyone else catch themselves in similarly irrational thought processes when shopping?
(In my defence, though, I should add that Scenario A worked out in the end. I held out for months, but eventually Flavour X got its turn at being on special offer. The freezer is now full of it.)
Scenario B: I want to buy Product B, which is a perishable item. I know how much Product B costs. When I get there, I see that Product B is on a multibuy special offer (2-for-1, or 3-for-2 or such like.) I do not want two (or three, or whatever the deal is.) It is a perishable item, and there is no way we could get through it. However, because I could get 2 (or 3) for a better price, just buying a single one for the normal, non-discounted price, seems like a waste of money. I do not buy Product B.
Scenario C: We find ourselves in need of a few items while out without my purse. Pellinor has money on him, but no supermarket loyalty card. Two small local supermarkets are within easy reach of us: the one we possess an absent loyalty card for (Sainsbury's), and one for which we have no loyalty card (Co-op.) Wherever we go, we will get no loyalty card points and no bundle of money-off vouchers, which sometimes (occasionally) have given us several pounds worth of vouchers just for buying one small, cheap item. However, shopping in Sainsbury's, where we should get these things but won't, somehow feels worse than shopping in Co-op, where we never do. I fight the urge to say that we have to shop in the Co-op as a result.
Is it just me, or does anyone else catch themselves in similarly irrational thought processes when shopping?
(In my defence, though, I should add that Scenario A worked out in the end. I held out for months, but eventually Flavour X got its turn at being on special offer. The freezer is now full of it.)
