Always Be Weary of the Bait and Switch

This is in response to Adam’s Sneaky Marketing Trick

The 1990s were the Wild West of the Internet and computing era. Almost everything was new and the technology was foreign to almost everyone. Do you remember when you could actually buy screensaver software?

In this vast frontier there stood stores that were dedicated to selling computer products. Think Best Buy, but a little more specialized. These stores were like the saloons of the Wild West, a meeting place of interesting people that were a little off the beaten path of society.

Within the walls of these saloons were “experts”. These experts had answers to questions I couldn’t even comprehend:

• What is a graphics card?
• How much RAM does my computer need to play that game?
• What driver did I need in order to operate that color printer?

These magical men were always there to answer my questions. They were the experts.

But mostly, they were just salesmen.

In the late 90s, or maybe early 2000s, I needed a new computer and one of the major players at the time, Circuit City, was advertising a great deal on a particular model I wanted.

As I walked through what might as well have been wooden double doors into a world I didn’t understand, I remember being full of optimism. I was going to get a great new computer and a decent cost.

One of these “experts” assisted me. I told him I wanted the model I saw in the advertisement. He told me that they were out of that model, but they had a very similar model for just a little bit more money.

A very similar model for a little bit more money? This man wasn’t an expert who was looking out for betterment of my computing future, he was a salesmen trying to execute a basic bait and switch – promote a certain product and get someone into the store only to offer them something else entirely. It’s incredibly unethical.

I never went back to Circuit City. They went out of business a few years later, so maybe karma finally caught up with them. Once a company starts attempting bait and switches, it usually signals desperate times.

So Adam, I would call Firestone’s marketing campaign a classic bait-and-switch.

Shame on them.

I would urge anyone reading this to never associate with this type of company. They don’t have your best interests at heart. In fact, your best interests aren’t even on their radar.