The power of 'Free'

I was walking to work today and Tropicana was giving away orange juice. What struck me was the fact that people were lined up to get their free juice. Lining up! I can see grabbing one as you go by but standing in line on a chilly morning for orange juice. It's not like you can't just run into a store, put down you two bucks and walk out with one.

It amazes me how people act when things are free. Things they wouldn't want to pay for, now become "must haves" when someone is giving them away. Things that people don't want, are now desirable if some struggling actor is handing them out on the street corner. I have seen people get things and then say "I won't use it, but you know it was free so I decided to take one." Look folks, free does not equal valuable. If you don't want something you should not grab it just because it is being given away.

Also people seem to lose their sense of self-restraint with these giveaways. When Dannon was giving away some of their smoothies people were grabbing four or five at a time. I wanted to tell these people that it was a pretty good bet that if they really wanted more, they could probably find a store that was carrying them. But I guess things just don't taste the same once you have to but them.