Why Free Food Isn’t Really Free
by Vin Miller
The recent KFC grilled chicken promotion has instigated a wave of similar promotions throughout the fast food and restaurant industries. Millions of people swarmed KFC restaurants across the nation for a free meal, and in the upcoming weeks, many other restaurants will be looking to feed off of this frenzy.
The irony behind these promotions is that the free food ends up costing much more than the money saved from not having to buy it.
A Ferocious Appetite for Free Food
It’s human nature to seek maximum value at the lowest cost possible. Perhaps this is an evolutionary survival instinct and those who were able to obtain food and shelter with the lowest investment of time and energy were more likely to survive. Now that we don’t have to worry as much about finding food and shelter, our survival instincts have become focused on money. As such, offers for free free food, or free anything, are extremely popular. They lead people to believe that they’re getting a significant value at no cost, but is this really the case?
The size of the restaurant industry is a testament to how much we enjoy eating out. Combined with an offer for free food, the intense appetite for a tasty restaurant meal becomes nearly irresistible and prevents many of us from recognizing that the value being offered is rarely worth the required investment.
The True Cost of Free Food
There’s a popular expression that says there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and it almost always turns out to be true. In fact, the effort that people go through to take advantage of an opportunity for a free meal often ends up exceeding the value of the meal itself by a large margin.
Long Lines and Lost Time
Most people get so excited about a great deal that they forget to consider that everyone else will be excited about it as well. The usual result is a long line and an equally long wait that’s likely to leave you with hunger pains. For many people, time is money and waiting online for a free meal becomes ironically expensive. Because their reasoning is likely to be altered by the excitement of getting a bargain, they may not even realize that they’ve sacrificed more than they gained. In the end, their lunch certainly wasn’t free, and it wasn’t even a good deal.
Frustration, Stress and Nothing to Eat
In addition to the time they can waste, free food promotions often have supply shortages and hidden restrictions that make them difficult to take advantage of. Imagine waiting on a long line and anticipating your “free” meal with such hunger that you’re ready to take a bite out of your arm. How would you feel if you got to the front of the line and were told that the promotion is over or that there’s no food left? This is exactly what happened to thousands of hungry KFC customers. In fact, this was such a big issue that it made the news, nearly caused riots, and resulted in KFC offering rain checks.
As you can see, free food promotions can easily cause a lot of frustration, waste a chunk of your day, and leave you hungry and without food. How good does “free” sound now?
Would You Like a Larger Waistline with Your Order?
The worst part of most free food promotions is that that the food being offered is quite unhealthy, and this is certainly the case with KFC’s Grilled Chicken. Sure, we can all stand to enjoy unhealthy food in moderation, but how many people are going to pass up a free meal because they’ve already had their capacity of bad food for the week? Not many!
With the wave of free food offers that Oprah Winfrey and KFC have instigated, many people will likely end up eating more unhealthy food than normal in the upcoming weeks, and the stress of waiting in line and possibly being turned away will only make matters worse.
The Irony of a Free Food Promotion
The KFC grilled chicken promotion has made it quite obvious that millions of people are eager to endure the frustration of waiting in a long line for “free” food that’s harmful to their health. Somehow, these people have come to the conclusion that saving a few dollars is worth the frustration and wasted time that are a likely part of the deal. Ironically, they’re getting less value from their time than the cashier that’s serving them the free food and doing so for minimum wage. Perhaps a career change is in order!
We live in a convenience driven society where people frequently spend money to save time and effort. In fact, this is one of the primary reasons why many of us eat at restaurants in the first place. What’s really ironic about many of these free food promotions is that they entice people to tolerate the inconveniences that they’d otherwise pay a lot of money to avoid.
While the appeal of free food is based on getting a lot of value from a minimal investment, this is far from what typically happens. As you continue to see offers for free food, take a moment to ask yourself if you’re really going to get the value from it that you initially thought. More importantly, consider if you really want to put unhealthy food in your body just to save a few dollars.
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“Perhaps this is an evolutionary survival instinct and those who were able to obtain food and shelter with the lowest investment of time and energy…”
Or a throwback instinct…
“Long Lines and Lost Time”
“Frustration, Stress and Nothing to Eat”
…less value from their time than the cashier that’s serving them the free food and doing so for minimum wage.”
Pathetic. Brings to mind the Wal-mart crowd that stampeded that poor part-time worker to death.
Vin, I am totally amazed at what people will do. I have seen gas wars where cars are lined up and down the street obviously waiting hours to save a few dollars. The same people probably burned up a bunch of gas in their cars idling and then afterward stopped at a convenience store and bought beer and cigarettes. Go figure.
So true…down the road, you will eventually pay for the “free food”! Great post again…