What is the appeal of a good deal?
Posted August 25, 2015 11:06 pm.
Last Updated August 25, 2015 11:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A promotion selling a new kind of gas for only 10 cents a litre at select Shell stations in Metro Vancouver had people lining up for over an hour to get in on the deal and a PNE promotion giving away free admission was a huge draw for the fair. But why are we willing to go to such great lengths for a bargain?
SFU Professor of Business Steven Kates believes it all comes down to being a value oriented person.
“We feel that our time is worth less than the savings that we would get for the cheap gas,” he explains. “So we make a pretty automatic, fairly quick calculation in our minds, really it’s a feeling and we decide that it is worth it compared to the say hour long wait.”
Kates suggests people across the socioeconomic spectrum like a deal. “I wouldn’t just say that it was restricted to people on low income or fixed income or poor. I’d say that anyone from the entire spectrum likes a deal.”
He does add however that the promotion offered by the PNE was likely worth it for families who may be hard pressed for funds.
