Stupid shows up everywhere

The other day I bought some clothes from Express, under their buy-one-get-one-half-off sale. It was a good deal, but I noticed that you’d get the cheapest item in your basket at the sale price. So, for instance, say you were buying 2 pairs of jeans normally priced at $100 each and 2 shirts normally priced at $50 each. You’d get 50% off each of the shirts, a savings of $50.

But that’s not what you’d expect. You’d expect to get 50% off one pair of jeans and 50% off one shirt, a savings of $75. It was this expectation that led me to double-up in the first place, and I can’t be the only one.

Of course, all I’d need to do to get the larger discount would be to place two orders: one for the jeans, and another for the shirts. And of course, this is exactly what I did. The process just ending up taking a few minutes longer.

I couldn’t find the sale’s terms and conditions on Express’s website, but it’s probably safe to assume that this wasn’t an oversight or a simple coding error. If it were, customer complaints would’ve brought the issue to their attention by now. Some executive signed off on this sale design. I’m guessing they reasoned that most customers wouldn’t notice, and many of those who did wouldn’t care enough to divide their purchases into several orders. This probably allows the company to get away with issuing smaller discounts, on average.

But it’s also a terrible way to do business. It insults my intelligence, wastes my time, and makes Express seem unethical. And all to save a few dollars on a short-lived sale? This serves as a good reminder that large companies aren’t immune from stupid decisions.