Weird Edible-Inedible Promo Combinations
On the New York Times's Freakonomics blog this morning, the freaks examined weird promotional combos—buy X, get Y free. Notable were the taxidermy and cheese and free ham with printer purchase pairings. Readers were asked if they had any other examples. Some of the edible/inedible combos included free Jell-o with gas purchase, spagetti/corn flakes, haircut/rotisserie chicken, gas/beer, and gas/bananas.
But "WB" beat me to the punch, mentioning the Les Schwab* free-beef-with-purchase-of-set-of-tires promo that the Pacific Northwest tire chain has been featuring every February for 45 years now. In fact, a year before he passed away, Les Schwab himself was honored as a "Beef Backer" by seven western-state beef councils in 2006 for his "homage to to the region's cattle ranchers." Unfortunately, the one time I had to purchase tires from Les Schwab was on July 16, 1999**, so the offer was not valid.
Scrolling through the comments on the Freakonomics blog reveals many more strange promo combos—along with a wealth of "two-fer" stores that offer seemingly incongruous products—grave markers/fresh-baked bread, ice cream/yarn, chocolate/eyeglasses. Did they miss any that you know of?
I'm reminded, too of Mo Gridder's, a combination auto shop and barbecue joint in the Bronx that Peter Meehan wrote about in the New York Times after Ed Levine here tipped him off to it.***
Related
Bogey's Pizza & Guns, a Combination Pizzeria and Gun Shop
Video: Jones' Good Ass BBQ & Foot Massage
* I never thought I'd have occasion to mention Les Schwab on Serious Eats.
** I remember the date exactly, because I was sitting in the Les Schwab lobby waiting for my tire change when the news of JFK Jr.'s death splashed on TV.
*** Of course I was miffed that Ed went and tipped off the Times to this story before we blogged about it ourselves.
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4 Comments:
This always makes the Libs scream like little girls - Open an account at our Bank and get a free shot gun ! That's big in Texas .
jfitz at 6:22AM on 07/28/09
Hey! see below -pizza and guns .Ha. Whoda thunk it ?
jfitz at 6:25AM on 07/28/09
@jfitz: Wasn't judging the pizza and guns place. I grew up in a hunting household. But I think you have to admit it's a strange combo. I've never seen anything like it (granted, I've only done a little bit of traveling in Texas). I could see gun shop/convenience store or gun shop/gas station, but gun shop/pizzeria seems less practical.
Adam Kuban at 9:27AM on 07/28/09
The "Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia CD-ROM and Kraft Singles cheese" bundle, sold at Costco and other big-box stores in the late 1990s.
hmcnally at 11:04AM on 07/28/09