Generosity

Britain loves to give stuff away. Especially if you buy something else. In every store there is a special offer '3 for 2' or 'buy this and get this for free'. And I unashamedly use this, like crazy to my advantage, when it suits me. But sometimes I still feel like I have been had. Conned by consumeralism. The story of a shop-aholic.
Today I walked into the city center (which meant I walked to the subway station and let them take me the rest of the way). On my way there I stopped at McColls (a newspaper kiosk) and bought The Scottish Sun (yeah, they have their own Sun here, and they need it as well as it is practically always raining here). The paper was 55p today, since it is Saturday, but still in my opinion cheap. With it I got a DVD disc (Carry On Cabby), which is the only reason why I bought the paper. That's usually the reason why I buy any paper or magazine here in Scotland ... I get something I don't need for free. Well, sometimes it can come in handy. Some of my kitchen cutlery is from a magazine, I got a bag from another. Probably going through all the magazines in Britain and grabbing everything that comes with them, I guess you could almost furnish a small flat. Handbags, clothes, makeup, hair-do stuff, DVD's, cd's, games, hobby stuff, stitching and crochetting, stamps, believe me I have seen it all.
Once I was in Woolworth's just to buy one videotape for the vcr, but the only thing they had was a packet of 3. Not at all what I wanted but it was sort of the only thing I could do if I wanted to get the tapes (I wanted to use it that evening) so I sauntered over to the counter to pay for my 3 tapes, when I came to the counter, the woman cheerily informed me that they had a special offer and the tape packet I held in my hand was a 2 for 1 special. So I ended up with 6 tapes instead of the 1 and the only 1 I wanted. I still have the other 5.
This is the story everywhere, buy something and get something for free. And you get so used to this, that this is such a great offer that you just, get swallowed up in it, and get conned into buying three of the things that you only need one of and only use like once every five years, but you still go away happy, thinking that you got a great deal.