As Seen on TV – Less Expensive than the Regal
January 21, 2010mike 2 Comments »
Admit it, you’ve sat at home in front of the TV mesmerized by the Shamwow, Snuggie, Slapchop, Oxyclean, Mighty Putty, you name it. And you said to yourself… Three easy payments of $19.99 that’s crazy… but wait there’s more! We’ll slash two payments give you TWO and cut the cost to $9.99! What! You mean I can get TWO shamwows plus half a dozen shamwow bar rags and a letter opener all for only $9.99! That’s crazy! Only 45 seconds ago that would have cost me nearly $250.00! And just think… if you skipped out on a trip to the Regal to see the latest Ben Stiller flick you could get the Shamwow AND rent that movie in three months at the Redbox!
As Seen on TV, Less Expensive than the Regal!
January 21st, 2010 at 5:57 pm
As a guy whose father buys anything he sees on TV (and I mean ANYTHING) allow me to present a counter argument. This argument is based on two facts: these products are almost never bought individually, and never bought only once.
When my dad walks into a wal-mart or Target, he will invariably buy whatever is new in the seen-on-TV section (if only they were confined to one section)… not just the one product he wanted initially. This instantly doubles the cost of watching infomercials.
Believe me when I say that the cheap shit on the tele will brake, as a matter of course and not chance. Therefore when your FlowBEE chokes on your greasy hair for the last time, it must be replaced until stores stop carrying it. Acknowledging that you bought a terrible product is out of the question; it would invalidate 90% of your purchases in the last decade.
So one night of watching infomercials can produce this equation:
($20*num of products)*(how many times they will be replaced).
Assume a 2-product purchase replaced twice… ($20*2)(2)=$80
This is considerably more pricey than taking your family of five to the movies.
January 26th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
You bring up some very good counterpoints… makes me wonder the financial strain As Seen on TV has put on American families