Buy One, Get One
“I hate going shopping nowadays!”
“Whoa, Ken what’s come over you? The Ken I know but not necessarily liked, lived to shop.”
“I know, I know, I know, but not anymore.” Ken sighed deeply and lowered his eyes. Jimmy was a little disturbed by his friend’s declaration and wondered how he could ask him the reason without upsetting him. After a few minutes of deliberation, he gave up.
“What happened man, did you have some sort of catharsis?”
“I’m not sure what that word actually means, but if it means what I think, then no I don’t think so. But it’s these signs, these, these…..” It looked as if Ken was strugglingly to come up with the right words. “These signs, they’re everywhere, they’re like magnets to me.”
“Signs, what signs?” asked Jimmy thinking that maybe his friend was about to let him into some dark secret.”
“Yes, these buy one get one offers. They’re everywhere.”
“Oh!” laughed Jimmy.
“Why are you laughing?” asked Ken feeling slighted.
“Oh no,” Jimmy immediately jumped in feeling he may have upset his friend. “No, I wasn’t saying anything against you, it’s just that I have a term for those and how I deal with them.”
“Do those signs affect you as well? I never thought of you as a shopper.”
“Oh no! But Beth is.” Jimmy smiled, “BOGO No go. That’s how I deal with them.”
“BOGO no go?” Queried Ken feeling lost.
“Yup buy one get one, no go. What that means is when I go out shopping with Beth and I see a sign in the window of a shop stating buy one get one at either half price or free, I have an agreement with her that we stay out of that shop.”
Ken smiled. He had never thought of his friend as particularly bright, but in this case he thought it was a brilliant slogan, and he was an Ad man! “Does it work?”
“Like a charm,” replied Jimmy noticing the smile on Ken’s face, “like a charm.”
“So, if I told Susan we don’t go into a store that has a BOGO sign on it she will listen?”
“I’m sure,” replied Jimmy a little confused, “but I thought you were the one who had problems with shopping too much?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well then, why would you go into a shop when you’re not with her?”
Ken had to think for a moment. He did most of his shopping without Susan. That would mean he would have to change his shopping habits. He wasn’t quite prepared to do that. “I guess that’s something I need to work on, don’t I.”
“Well actually it’s very simple if you follow my rule.” Ken was becoming more and more impressed with his friend. Here he was in the advertising business. He owned a very successful agency and he was talking to Jimmy about life, someone who worked on the assembly line at a plastic manufacturer and had never got beyond being in charge of a line.
They had known each other for years. Their daughters played on the same softball team. They had hit it off the first time they met. They were the only parents who weren’t screaming at their children when they made a bad play. They had kept in touch over the years and grew closer as time went on.
“And what’s your rule?” asked Ken after putting a pen away after he had written down the line ‘BOGO NOGO’ on a piece of paper and shoved it into his pocket.
“Well what Beth does is say to me in the morning when I set off for work, there are some sales going on right now and we need xyz, so do you mind if I go and pick it up and nothing else. Now what that does is alert me that we are out of something and she has promised me that’s all she will pick up and nothing else.”
Ken thought for a second. “But how do you know you’re really out of xyz? Maybe she’s fooling you?”
Jimmy looked at his friend and Ken understood. “You have to have trust for this to work,” he added.
“Yes, you’re right. Ok I’ll try it. But this slogan you came up with bogo nogo, I love that!” Ken thought for a second. “Do you mind if I find a use for it in my business?”
“No of course not. I’m sure I’m not the first to think of it.”
“I’ll find out tomorrow and if you are, do you mind if I trademark it?”
“Again Ken, you don’t have to ask me about these things. I give you full authority to do with it whatever you want.”
“Thanks. Are you going to be at the game this weekend?”
“Yes absolutely. Have we missed one yet?”
“You know the winner goes to the championship.”
“Ken, yes of course I know that. Just because we are the only parents not to scream at our kids doesn’t mean we aren’t passionate about how they play the game.”
“Yes, you’re right.” A fleeting thought went through Ken’s mind. He laughed. “Maybe if the term bogo nogo hasn’t been trademarked then I'll do that, and we can put it on the kids’ uniforms and sponsor them.”
“You can Ken, I can’t.”
“Yes you can,” replied Ken getting ready to leave Jimmy’s home.
Jimmy looked at him and furrowed his brow. “How so?”
“Well, you don’t think that if I can trademark it, I’m going to do it solely in my name, now do you? You’re the one who came up with it, so you can share in the glory as well.”
That was too ethereal for Jimmy to contemplate and he replied, “in all honesty Ken, as I said you know best. You’re the business owner I’m not. I just came up with a slogan as a way to keep Beth from overspending.”
“And me,” interrupted Ken, “I’m sure Susan will be very glad when I tell her of your method.” He let out a quick sharp laugh. “You won’t believe it, but the other day I was in one of those outlet stores.”
“You’re an outlet buyer? Oh my, what’s happened to this world?” interrupted Jimmy.
“No, I don’t usually. I was in Neiman Marcus and I had been there a while ago when I saw a suit I liked, so when I was there next I didn’t see the suit so I asked. The salesman told me they send their close outs to the outlet and he told me they were having a sale. So, I scooted over there. They had the suit but not my size. But because it was a BOGO as you call it, I bought two suits and figured I can have it in my wardrobe and maybe exchange it for the right size one day.”
“Crazy!” exclaimed Jimmy, “that’s just crazy.”
Ken hung his head and extended his hand. “See you at the game,” he replied slowly.
“7 o’clock,” reminded Jimmy.
The next season when their daughters’ team took the field, each player had emblazoned across the front of the uniforms the BOGO NOGO LOGO! It turned out to be an extremely popular conversation starter which led to a boom in Ken’s business. And for Jimmy and his wife, they no longer care whether they bought anything on sale or not!. It turned out to be an extremely popular conversation starter which led to a boom in Ken’s business. And for Jimmy and his wife, they no longer care whether they bought anything on sale or not!