How are B2G1 (and similar)sales done where you are?

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

So this is a topic that popped up in another thread and its been really interesting. 

The premise:

A store runs a buy 2 get 1 free sale, or something similar. Lets say its a game store and you choose 6 games of varying prices

for example $55, $55, $55, $45, $35, $30.

In all of my working and shopping experience, the end result is you get the two cheapest items in the transaction for free, which would be the $35, and $30 games. If you wanted a $55 for free you would have to do two separate transactions in order to do so. One with only the expensive games, and another with the cheaper games. As far as I knew this was the only way it has been done, at least in my area.

Other people have stated (they can correct me if I say it wrong) that this is not the normal way to go about this and that the store tour purchasing from would just knock off the $55 game and $30 game under the same transaction. 

So I want to hear from others and see what is more common. 

[Gloves | 11,812]

Some places it's literally out of the employees hands. You all realize (I hope) that they're bound to the checkout software, right? Especially at a place like Gamestop, they're not just taking off the value as they see fit, they are putting in SKUs which apply a discount based on some logic. 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

As I said in the other thread, almost every transaction of this type I've ever participated in (be it for games or other types of goods) has resulted as you've suggested, with the two (or three, or four, or however many multiples of the deal you've thrown in your proverbial cart before checkout) lowest items being the free ones unless you did multiple transactions.  This has been the case in every chain store I've ever participated in this type of deal in as well as most third party/mom 'n pop stores (in those I ask when I notice the sale so that I can set my expectations accordingly).  I suspect that at least one of the third party stores I got the consumer-friendly version of the deal at normally didn't, as their response was "Yeah,we can do it that way for you."

I've made purchases from as far north as PA and as far south as GA, east as far as the Atlantic and as far was as about the easternmost 1/3 of TN.

[OptOut | 8,890]

I mean, cheapest free yeah, that's pretty obvious! So what you would want to do in that scenario is run through the 55 dollar games in a separate transaction. I couldn't imagine any business setting up their checkout system to deliberately pick out the best possible combination of items for you to pay them LESS.

I GUESS if the system was poorly set up, like rather than discounting at the END of a transaction, it just discounted based on the order of the items scanned, then it might simply discount the cheapest of every three items scanned in order... BUT I have never seen that, wherever I shop they always do all the discounting at the end, so I dunno...

[themisfit138 | 523]

The way I have seen any B2G1 work is. You pay for the high dollar games and get the cheapest for free. 
 

In your example you would pay for the $55 and $45 games and get the $35 and $30 games for free. If all checked out at the same time. 
 

 

[A_Feisty_Pickle | 244]

Probably 100% of the stores I've gone to it's the overall cheapest games free, not split into groups of 3. However I have also had stores that will refuse to let me do multiple transactions, so it's either suck it up and go with the flow, pass off a set of 3 to my wife who is usually with me, or just go put some of the games back. 

[SailorScoutMandy | 782]

Our local resale does it in order, example $55, $55, $55 (free), $45, $35, $30 (free).

Although they do it buy 5 get the 6th free, but still in order. So of you got 12 the 6th and 12th item are free. They don't just take the cheapest off. 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2021 by SailorScoutMandy
Edit

[TDIRunner | 2,757]

With the exception of one game store that I no longer visit for that very reason, the crossed out games would be free at any other store you can find.  My experience covers a pretty wide area and includes traveling two states over. 

 $55, $55, $55, $45, $35, $30.

In all cases this is done with one transaction.  At most places it's calculated automatically at the register, however, some places have to do it manually, which is why I always stack my games ahead of time to make their life easier (and the wait for the guy behind me shorter).

Some of you guys are getting ripped off, and personally, if it were me, I would start voting with my wallet and start spending my money elsewhere.  

[RH | 4,941]

36 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

Some of you guys are getting ripped off, and personally, if it were me, I would start voting with my wallet and start spending my money elsewhere.  

That would be nice, but like everyone else, you always have the bottom two knocked off, as Gloves said, this is setup in software and I've had many nice clerks mention "you can just make two transactions".  This isn't just for games.  This is for any BxGO deal.

The interesting thing is it might be cheaper in some places to just sort the games buy price and knock of every third game.  The reason is because transactions by credit/debit usually cost a fixed amount plus a specific percent.  So, if the merchant is charged $.35 per transaction, each additional transaction cost them $.35.  But, it doesn't save them much/anything if people aren't diligent enough to care and do multiple transactions, and that's my guess as to why it's not implemented that way for now stores.

Edited July 9, 2021 by RH

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

My only comment here is that if a store tells me I can't buy them in separate transactions because that is "gaming the system", I'll never shop there again. Terrible customer service. 

[RH | 4,941]

51 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

My only comment here is that if a store tells me I can't buy them in separate transactions because that is "gaming the system", I'll never shop there again. Terrible customer service. 

Agreed. That's just poor business and would almost definitely harm their bottom line. I'd guess some majority of buyers enjoy the deal but not enough to stage transactions. The few willing to make 2-5 purchases are the exception, so agitating them just alienates them and means they won't come back. It's worth the hit of a few bucks to keep the customer.

[TDIRunner | 2,757]

1 hour ago, RH said:

........this is SOMETIMES setup in software .......

 

I fixed it for you.

Vintage Stock has to ring the games up in sets and manually make the third game free by scanning a sheet with B2G1 bar code.  If you bring up a huge pile of games, they have to go through the games and stack the sets together (like 3 $20 games, and 3 $10 games).  This is why I do it for them before I get to the counter.  It saves them time and it saves the time of the guy waiting behind me in line. 

The other reason I do that is because I don't want it to get screwed up which is why I also calculate the price in my head first as a rough estimate.  If it's within a buck, I know they did it right.  

[twiztor | 855]

5 hours ago, themisfit138 said:

The way I have seen any B2G1 work is. You pay for the high dollar games and get the cheapest for free. 

In your example you would pay for the $55 and $45 games and get the $35 and $30 games for free. If all checked out at the same time. 

 

5 hours ago, A_Feisty_Pickle said:

Probably 100% of the stores I've gone to it's the overall cheapest games free, not split into groups of 3.

 

11 hours ago, OptOut said:

I mean, cheapest free yeah, that's pretty obvious! So what you would want to do in that scenario is run through the 55 dollar games in a separate transaction.

same. every BOGO sale i've seen has resulted in the overall cheapest item(s) free. 

Edited July 9, 2021 by twiztor

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Sounds like some Midwestern states may have some consumer protection laws that the rest of the country doesn't.  Which means it's nice for those folks, but not the "norm," as it's the other way (in favor of the store unless multiple transactions occur) seemingly everywhere else.  As for folks suggesting that anyone presented with the deal in the store's favor basically throw a tantrum and never go back, they're forgetting to weigh in the fact that putting up with an additional transaction or two is still more cost effective than spending additional time, gas, and more money (since the same sort of deal pricing is rarely, if ever available somewhere else at the same time) to go elsewhere.

This might make me unpopular, but folks who have enough money to pick up the equivalent of 20-30 transactions worth of B2G1 deals whenever this type of thing crops up (presumably several times of year) should have better things to worry about than missing out on $5 or $10 per stack if the sort goes the store's way versus the customer's.  Given the average price for modern games, that works out to roughly $2-3K per bulk purchase visit, which many (most?) of us would drool at being able to drop semi-constantly and not think twice about.  If you're in that situation and that worried about pinching the pennies, your choices become suck it up if the sale rules go against you, deal with going through checkout multiple times, or, virtually guaranteed, spend more money somewhere else (which I guess teaches someone a lesson?).  Yeah, it's not great if you want to buy a huge stack and you pay a little more, but that's why you ask ahead of time how they're calculating the stack, or prepare yourself for one of the other options prior to checking out.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

It's always the cheapest games in the transaction that are free, either by policy or by software. So if you buy six games, you should always expect the cheapest two to be free.

The only sure fire way around this is to make multiple transactions. I used to do that all the time when I was a young man scrounging for deals.

[fcgamer | 4,739]

I remember growing up, some book shops (Walden's, B&N, etc) would specifically list on the B2G1 signs that the cheapest item was the free one. As kids, we'd all want to have the most expensive one free, but of course that wasn't the reality of things.

That being said, I'm in Pennsylvania, and 98% of the time only ever shopped in Pennsylvania or Maryland. I've definitely had the tier situation happen before, i.e. $55+$55+free(originally $55)+$40+$35+free(originally$30), without saying or doing anything special.

Having been on both sides of the counter, imo that's the way it should be done. Multiple transactions wastes everyone's time, and those that refuse to ring up multiple transactions due to "gaming the system" are LOSING sales, as well as providing the customers with shitty customer service. Let's be honest about it.

 

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

58 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

Midwestern states may have some consumer protection laws

None that I'm aware of. Just local stores that know how to build brand loyalty.

59 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

folks suggesting that anyone presented with the deal in the store's favor basically throw a tantrum and never go back

Not sure if this was directed at me, but I'm only referring to a store saying you can't split your purchases into multiple transactions. Of course in a set of 3, the cheapest will always be free. I'm talking about when you want to buy 3,6,9,etc games/items. 

[TDIRunner | 2,757]

1 hour ago, darkchylde28 said:

As for folks suggesting that anyone presented with the deal in the store's favor basically throw a tantrum and never go back,

No one has suggested that.  Please read more carefully.  I specifically mentioned discussing the issue with the store associate politely.  

I'm not sure why this has upset you so much, but if it bothers you, make a trip out here and get some good deals.  No reason to keep throwing out insults like a child.

Edited July 9, 2021 by TDIRunner

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

Im not really understanding why its an issue to do a couple of transactions. Yea of course it wud be easier if they just did this stuff in one go. But again the norm Ive seen is you would need to do multiple transactions, which I dont have a problem with. Ive never had a store tell me they wouldn’t do it in multiple transactions 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

2 hours ago, CodysGameRoom said:

None that I'm aware of. Just local stores that know how to build brand loyalty.

Not sure if this was directed at me, but I'm only referring to a store saying you can't split your purchases into multiple transactions. Of course in a set of 3, the cheapest will always be free. I'm talking about when you want to buy 3,6,9,etc games/items. 

It wasn't.  TDI was saying that GameStop in his region automatically did splits in a way that's best for the customer.  from Pittsburgh to the north (and perhaps New Jersey, per someone else who commented in the other thread) to Atlanta in the south, I've not had that same experience at a Game Stop.  If I want the best possible deal, I've got to do multiple transactions to take advantage of multiples of a B2G1 sale, and I'm ok with that.  As for local stores building brand loyalty, absolutely, that's the way to do it, but it's basically unheard of in chain stores, and not all third party/mom 'n pop subscribe to that method of doing business.  It's not the greatest thing when I can't get the absolute best deal without going through multiple transactions, but it isn't breaking me to pay 2-3 times in a row either.

1 hour ago, TDIRunner said:

No one has suggested that.  Please read more carefully.  I specifically mentioned discussing the issue with the store associate politely.  

I'm not sure why this has upset you so much, but if it bothers you, make a trip out here and get some good deals.  No reason to keep throwing out insults like a child.

In essence, you did.  You said you were polite, but you did.  You were aghast when they told you how the deal worked, then explained that it was their store's policy that it work that way, then you tried to argue how their policy was bad for them, etc., before trying to walk and leave a huge bulk lot of stuff at the register.  Then you talked about how you have never and won't ever go back, as well as encouraging folks in other posts never to give business to any store that holds any such policy.  What term would you prefer?  Fit?  Snit?

As for throwing out insults to/at anyone specific, since I didn't name names and exaggerated the details somewhat, it sounds more like they hit home on something of a guilty conscience.  Rereading what I've posted, there aren't any true insults to anyone, just descriptions of behavior and my opinions of said behavior.  If you identify with the behavior I've expressed disdain for, that's on you to work out.

[TDIRunner | 2,757]

14 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

 

In essence, you did.  You said you were polite, but you did.  

 

 

15 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

 

As for throwing out insults to/at anyone specific, since I didn't name names and exaggerated the details somewhat 

You know what you did. Don't be a coward and hide behind your vague comments.  Seriously, grow the fuck up. 

[a3quit4s | 4,122]

I usually get the lowest price game for free. Sure as hell beats paying for it as far as I'm concerned. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by a3quit4s