I was addicted to Sam’s Hatch Chile Cheese Flavored Peanuts from the first time I tried them while walking by one of their many sample carts. They were a limited run, so I was very sad when Sam’s stopped carrying them. But, they did start stocking the seasoning itself, so I got that going for me.
I get that. That’s how I feel about kettle popcorn. I found a seasoning but it’s not the same as buying it pre-seasoned.
Not once. He- actually at one point i remember getting free oreos, i was an oreo fan before that so i guess the answer is yes cus i kept buying them after
Reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg joke: “I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too.”
Plasticity (3d software)
Shareware, AKA “try before you buy”, now known as free game demos.
My first one was DOOM on 3.5” floppy disks. I remember my dad asking “What’s this I.D. software you ordered?”
I remember the days of Playstation Jampack. I’d spend hours as a kid on those demos.
I don’t go to Costco but every few years and I went hungry with a friend who has membership and bought too many of the samples I had
It wasn’t a free “sample”, but I got someone’s hand-me-down leggings and they were so comfortable that I bought a new pair when I needed a different size.
I received a “gift with purchase” lip balm. I usually just toss it after discovering how sticky/goopy/fragranced/tingling it is, but this one was really mild/neutral/pleasant so I got the full one when I finished the sample.
I’m a lip balm fanatic, please share the brand!
Video games, for sure.
Yeah.
Mini story.
Back in the day, me and my best friend got on a mailing list for samples. We didn’t do it intentionally, but it ended up being pretty cool. We’d get all kinds of stuff. Some of it was shit, some was good, the way you’d expect.
But over the years, those samples worked. Sensodyne, the toothpaste for example. Tried a sample, and since it’s as good as anything else as toothpaste, the fact that I preferred the taste more than most was enough to switch.
But the cool shit was when they’d ask for feedback. Sometimes you’d get full sized freebies.
One of those was the candy, take 5. A pretzel with caramel, covered in chocolate. This was before they were for sale. We tried the samples, sent in the little card, and a few weeks later got boxes in the mail full of the samples, asking us to get other people to try it. So, we did, and those people usually sent the cards that came in the box the we gave them.
Turned out that the little number on the card was our number. So, when people sent in the cards with feedback, they knew it was us doing their marketing for them (that’s what the whole thing is, it wasn’t just them being nice). Well, another month or two passed, and we see them in stores. And we would buy them here and there, because they are insanely good, if a tad too sweet overall.
Then, we got more boxes from them, packed with the full sized packages, plus a whole booklet of coupons, and a surprisingly nice little form letter of thanks. It ended up being something like fifty free packages, twenty free coupons plus another twenty of half price.
What I like about this is it’s sincere… you liked something, got to share it, and it got onto shelves. Now everything feels like a scam.
Would you say the amount you received in thanks is roughly worth the amount of work you did by marketing and relaying feedback? I’m just curious.
Honestly, yeah.
It took next to zero effort, and it was a product I liked enough to have recommended even if the only thing I had gotten was the first sample.
It’s really the best kind of marketing I’ve ever run across. They made it so that the only work involved was handing something small to someone, plus the original feedback. If the product had sucked, even that effort wasn’t mandatory.
Granted this isnt a “Purchase,” but I married my wife. After that first sample, I was hooked and knew I wanted the whole woman forever. 6 years later, I got my best friend and gal of my dreams everyday.
Goals ❤️
Really weird that this question would come up right now because up until yesterday, I would say no. I was at the store with my daughter and there was a person giving away free samples of these frozen dumplings (they were cooked, not cold). My daughter chowed one down and asked for another. Now my daughter is a super picky eater, so I was like “hell yeah, I’m gonna buy a box of these”.
Well we went home to have dumplings for dinner and she didn’t want to eat them.
So now I have dumplings.
Damn she is too picky
Maybe you should’ve waited a week or two to serve those to her again, maybe twice in one day was too much for her pickiness
Whelp we got a whole box of them, so maybe in a day or two we will try again.
Wait are you talking about your cat?
- Cracked Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 to full Minecraft Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5. (I don’t like Microsoft and Notch is a Nazi)
- Cheese (before I was vegan. I kinda miss free food sampling)
- Monthly countrywide public transit ticket (well 9€ wasn’t free, but for a net of 39,000 km railway alone plus every other PT except HSR, it basically is). 49€ now, 58€ in 2025 (=> Subsidy regimes are not on parity to motorised individual traffic)
- Library subscription
We have this oriental restaurant here that gives out 8 samples at the beginning and you can then chose what to order, all-you-can-eat. The menu changes every couple of weeks. It’s not the greatest restaurant but a nice concept and I like going there with friends.
I did it with Fulton and Roark’s wax based cologne. It’s great for traveling and they smell nice. I still have the sample pack since I don’t wear cologne often.
Neat, I’ve never heard of wax-based cologne. How does it compare to non-wax-based cologne?
It’s nice. There are different scents. You use your finger to rub just a tiny bit off and apply it. The smells are good. I’d say it’s a bit harder to over-apply. And it’s in a much smaller package, so easier to transport.
That does sound nice!
In college I was given a 5-pound block of cheese after doing a mall survey on cheese.
Okay but the question was: did you purchase it?
Or are they still working their way through that 5 pound block of cheese?
I really need to work on my…reading comprehension sometimes.
Dude same. I words all the time
