Free Shopping: Suckering in Consumers with Some Shady Stipulations in the Fine Print

The purveyors of goods and services on the Internet are not always the virtuous and generous souls that some might wish them to be, but there are some websites which offer free goods with the hope of securing more solid business from the consumer at a later date. As opposed to suckering in the consumer with some shady stipulations in the fine print, many are more concerned with you developing an appetite for their goods than they are with ripping you off; although, be careful - some are not even that nice!

Largely, however, the high priests of commerce and mass marketing are clever beasts and when they look at the numbers behind Americans’ consumerist hysteria, they smell money. They know that particularly among America’s teenagers, giving away a few free items can be a solid investment. For every five-cent Jennifer Aniston refrigerator magnet they can push off for free, they are well aware that they have piqued the interest of scores of American teens with easy access to their parents’ purse strings!

Indeed, America’s marketing experts have learned their craft well and know that while they consume themselves with licensing agreements, consumer trends and mass-marketing, many of their potential customers simply think, "Wow, free stuff!" Of course, with a little bit of consumerist restraint and some healthy skepticism, one "can" in fact find some pretty decent free offerings on the Internet. They key of course is knowing where to look for them and remembering - as always - to check out that fine print!