I was at the grocery store to buy eggs. They were 1.99 for 18ct, but the deal was sweetened with a promise of buy one, get one free. Not feeling very much like Rocky Balboa, I had a hard time imagining how I could use 36 eggs without breaking the law (or windows) or wasting food. I collected a single package of 18 eggs.
When I got in line, though, the lady behind me also had a package of 18 eggs. Well, I put 2 and 2 together, or rather, 1 and 1 together. I asked the lady at the checkstand if it really was buy one, get one free. She confirmed, so I asked the lady behind me if I could buy her eggs. She didn’t understand at first, and wanted me to get my own eggs if I wanted more. But when I convinced her that if I purchased hers, they would be free, and I would be saving her $2, she accepted, the checkstand lady called me a good samaritan for saving a random lady $2, and I was ready continue about my business. In the end, the lady offered me $1 so that we split the savings equally, which was fair and I wasn’t about to make a bigger scene by refusing it. So in the end, I saved $1 by buying someone else’s eggs for them.
Sure, it’s just $1, you say. But think of the potential. Buying in bulk is pretty much always cheaper than buying individually. Many stores also offer group discounts. People who don’t know each other will pay full price for something, but if they somehow got together beforehand, they could save money by buying at once. Imagine the potential of a web site the did this kind of thing. It could set up group discounts for tickets to baseball games, concerts, volume purchases, whatever is cheaper for bulk. Of course, when you get down to splitting the cost of buy one, get one free 18ct eggs, it gets to be more work to find someone else than it’s worth in savings. But I’m just a guy with crazy ideas, and you’ve probably already had the idea or could point out a web site that already does this. If not, though, and you end up making this work, I want some credit and some royalties. 🙂
For now, I’m content with my $1.