10 Hidden Costs of Freebies
Updated 2024.11.04
Freebies, when offered from brands, neighbors or buy nothing groups, are tempting. But are free items really free? Of course not! Everything incurs a cost of some kind, including free items.
The reality is that free is never free for the marketer. Free offerings always have costs associated with producing, promoting, negotiating and selling the freebie. There are also costs associated with receiving the freebie.
So before you drive across town for that next freebie, consider if you’re willing to pay the full price.
Below are 10 unseen costs of free items:
1 - Your Time
You will have to spend time, which you can never get back, acquiring this item. If you calculate the amount of money you make per hour, and compare it to the time it takes for you to get the thing, that’s how much it costs up front.
Additionally, you’ll likely have to spend valuable time on maintenance of it: processing the item, using the item and caring for the item.
2 - Your Gas
Unless the free item is being offered by your next door neighbor, you’ll probably have to spend gas money to go get it. Gas is not cheap and every mile incurs a cost - both in the wear and tear of your vehicle and the gas you spend acquiring it.
3 - Your Social Battery
To obtain the item, you’ll most likely need to interact with a customer service representative, who may insist you negotiate for the item via coupons or try to convince you to buy the full size.
We all have a limited social battery to spend on interactions any given day - do you want to waste yours on this?
4 - Your Physical Space
You’ll have to find storage space for the item.
Even if you have a big house, your house still only has so much storage space, which you pay for by the square foot. To store this freebie, you have to give up storage space for other things - are you willing to do that?
5 - Your Personal Information
If the freebie is something you obtain online, you will 100% be put on a mailing list to convince you to purchase the full size product. Your email address is like your home address, it’s kinda personal.
Even more alarming is that marketers may also sell that information to other companies which you’ll not receive a cut on, even though you should.
Additionally, you have to spend time and your social battery sorting these emails - is the freebie worth more email administration, and having your personal email bought and sold repeatedly on without any compensation to you?
6 - Your Unpaid Labor
When the freebie is part of a giveaway, promotion or social media contest, you’ll have to promote the brand in exchange for the freebie - sometimes only for a mere chance to win, not even a guaranteed prize.
This means you become a billboard for no pay. You’re working for the brand for free now and you may get absolutely nothing in return for your skills, audience or other assets you provide.
7 - Your Health
In the case of free, used items, you’re going to have to clean that dusty item. Some free items come dirty, which means germs. You have to expose yourself to potential viruses and bacteria to get this free item into tip top shape. Is dealing with someone else’s unknown grime and sanitary habits worth it?
If it’s a heavy item, you also risk injury to muscles or bone, when getting this freebie home and in the right place.
If it’s food, keep in mind that free food is often not the healthiest option - it’s doughnuts, Halloween candy, pizza, etc. Some free foods require you to listen to a talk to buy something, which also drains your social battery.
8 - Your “Consumer” Data
Brands, and other humans, use the information you give them about what free items you desire for their future marketing plans and offerings. Like your email, this is also valuable information.
If you accept a free item, this is logged and counted as a desired item, and it will create more demand for that item. Your opinion, and the knowledge of your desires, are worth something. Is sharing that consumer data worth this freebie?
9 - Added Waste
Free items often come in smaller packages, as tiny plastic bottles inside cardboard boxes. These sample size packages equate to single use items and they’re environmentally unsound at their core.
10 - Transaction Costs
How many times have you been offered a freebie by a brand, only to discover at checkout that you have to pay the shipping and the taxes? It’s a bummer but it’s the reality. There are often transactional costs associated with freebies that are not shared up front.
Whenever you are presented with the option for a freebie, you’ll have to decide if what you trade in time, effort, space, data and personal information is worth it to you.
Sometimes, you may decide that the freebie is mutually beneficial - like prescription samples at the doctors’ office or an extra product with something you were already going to buy. But other times, you may decide that the costs associated with the freebie do not make sense for you.
All in all, freebies are never *exactly* free! Next time you’re offered a freebie, keep in mind that you can say no. Saying no is also feedback, which can also be helpful to both parties in the end.
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