business

Free samples are back, but with safety in mind

12 Comments
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

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12 Comments
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Pat gets ‘giddy’ over free samples?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yes---April.

Got vaxxed in the US.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

As the first fully vaxxed poster on JT, I have been hitting the free samples religiously when I'm in those stores.

Earlier than my 15 May second injection?

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I’ve never been one for food/drink samples in stores. Just doesn’t appeal to me.

In any case, there’s been free samples since early April offered at least one Japanese Costco since early April. I was shopping there then and watched my niece snarfing up any freebie she passed by!

For those concerned, I did get my hotdog and rotisserie chicken. They were both ‘Yummy.’

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As the first fully vaxxed poster on JT, I have been hitting the free samples religiously when I'm in those stores.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I'm counting the minutes until I'm fully vaxxed, so I can hit up my local Costco. There's a hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut with my name on it just waiting for me.

And don't forget to bring a rotisserie chicken home. Yuuummm.

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@GaryPen: I really don't need large volumes of Western products as I live in Japan. There are some good deals on blocks of hard cheese, some sausages...and not much else in our opinion. If you do comparison shopping as my wife does, we do much better shopping locally on prices and freshness. Try Fooshu online. I can walk to Costco by the way at Zama. About 40 minutes away.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Do you see the unattended kid grabbing free food? That is why it should be banned. Dirty and disgusting with kids running wild in Costco, and the prices are not really cheap anyway. Poking fingers through the plastic covering meats etc. is really wrong.

Keep the free food. I shop elsewhere now.

I understand why you want to avoid the free samples. But, to avoid Costco altogether? There's no better place in Japan to buy Western foods and products. HUGE selection of organic products, as well.

I'm counting the minutes until I'm fully vaxxed, so I can hit up my local Costco. There's a hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut with my name on it just waiting for me.

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Do you see the unattended kid grabbing free food? That is why it should be banned. Dirty and disgusting with kids running wild in Costco, and the prices are not really cheap anyway. Poking fingers through the plastic covering meats etc. is really wrong.

Keep the free food. I shop elsewhere now.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I'm looking forward to two weeks after my second vax, so I can go back to Costco. (I only just got my 1st shot yesterday). It'll be one of my first destinations.

But, I probably won't be hitting any of the free samples, as those lines are always way too long. I generally avoided them before Covid, anyway. They're worse in Japan than they were in back in the US, where I also avoided them.

And, that's on weekdays. I can't even imagine how long the lines are on weekends. (We shop on weekdays to avoid the crowds, in general, even before Covid. Public places, traffic, and parking are nuts in Japan on weekends.)

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Of course it’s not free, it’s distributed in the prices of the sample products if you buy them and to another part in all other prices to pay for higher costs of the logistics and staff salaries. But of course it’s also a nice or sometimes decisive part of the shopping experience. You’re served and entertained and you’ll pay for that like anywhere else too.

Don't be so sour all the time. It is advertising. Every firm spends some of their revenue on advertising their product. It's normal. But of all ways these firms can spend money advertising their product to me, free samples are about the only one that works. Media ads I tune out completely but wave something appetizing under my nose, mmmmmmmmm, and I just might buy it. Plus for our family Costo just hasn't been Costco without the food samples. You have no idea how happy it made us to see their return. It's like a progressive dinner as you shop, and many a planned dinner has been spoiled by porking out on the Costco samples. Yuuuummmmm.

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Of course it’s not free, it’s distributed in the prices of the sample products if you buy them and to another part in all other prices to pay for higher costs of the logistics and staff salaries. But of course it’s also a nice or sometimes decisive part of the shopping experience. You’re served and entertained and you’ll pay for that like anywhere else too.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

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