Not My Mother

So yesterday we had to fill up the car, as you do. We had a Coles shopping voucher so we went to the local Shell station (my research has shown that their discounted unleaded price is generally cheaper than elsewhere nearby). When I went in to pay the guy told me that in addition to the usual 4 cents per litre discount for the voucher, I could get a further 2 cents per litre off just by spending $2 instore. And he helpfully pointed out the chocolates and chewing gum as candidates for me to buy.

Look, it was the end of the day and I wasn’t up to spontaneous mental arithmetic. But I wasn’t sure it was a good deal and I certainly didn’t need any chocolate so I said no. I’d rather miss out on a bargain than agree to something that wasn’t one and be ripped off. Makes me feel less stupid, somehow.

Anyway, when I got back to the car I did the sums. We bought 45 litres of petrol, so the discount would have saved me a massive 90 cents. But to get the discount I had to spend $2 instore, so I’d end up $1.10 out of pocket. So, um, no thanks. I’d have to buy 100 litres of petrol to break even; are there any cars apart from the larger 4WDs that have tanks that large?

Obviously, if there was something I was going to buy anyway, then that would have been okay. But I rarely buy things at petrol stations unless it’s something I know has a fixed price like bags of ice or magazines, so they can’t mark it up.

I’m sure there are many people who aren’t bothered about paying an extra dollar or so for a bottle of milk for convenience of not having to stop again (but then why would they get excited about saving such a small amount?). But it made me wonder,  how many other people jump at the chance to buy stuff, just because they see “2 cent discount”, without thinking about it? It wasn’t so long ago I probably would have been one of them.

Would you buy something for the discount?