Buy One Get One

Tell me what do you understand about this sales pitch that you find in a lot of shops nowadays:

Buy One Get One
50% off
Absolutely Everything

Choose your answer:

(a) Buy one item and you get the other free
(b) Buy one item and get the other at half price

If you answer (a), like me, you are wrong. Answer (b) is the correct one. I wonder how many would choose (a) as their answer? Because of the above sales pitch, written in big letters in a poster, I was almost fooled (twice) to rush into a shop and buy clothes for my sons. The reality of the so-called credit crunch reined me in into making me think twice about buying. And that is when I realised that I understood it wrong. Remember to read the small print! The verbal warning you get before signing any credit purchase comes to mind. When I scrutinise the small posters inside the shop you will get these text instead: Buy one, get one half the price.

Is it not cheeky for shops to do this? I suppose it is within the legal boundary to do it but still, it seems to me like twisting the truth. As a consumer, we should think twice before we buy. These are hard times we are in right now. Caveat emptor!