Free. Sample. Put the words together and you have a worthwhile experience with no commitment nor payment required. Tiny hand lotions, Southwest Airlines’ peanuts, mini Bagel Bites - a day enhanced by a free sample is automatically a good day. Regardless of quality, or lack thereof, you should always take advantage of complimentary opportunities.
While the intent of a free sample is obviously to attract consumers to a product (those tricky advertising people will hook you on some newfangled juice drink faster than you can read sugar content per serving size), every once in a while a product comes along in free sample form that is truly spectacular.
Take for instance the mango salsa and pita chips provided by health store powerhouse Whole Foods. It’s hard to remember what life was like before I dipped that easily accessible chip into the sweet and spicy salsa accompanying it. If I hadn’t risked the germs in those exposed containers, I would have missed out on an instantaneous as well as a long-term palate-satisfying experience.
Once you finally decide to purchase such samplings in bulk form, the true benefits reach fruition. Not only can you enjoy the tasting experience of mango salsa at home, but you can enjoy it whenever you like.
Purchases based on free samples also provide numerous chances to share your mooching expertise with friends and acquaintances. Comments such as, “I just tried these at Sam’s Club,” will simultaneously prove you an expert and daring shopper.
Sampling with no strings attached can also make you feel deserving for no reason. That table with free Swiffer refills was set out just for you, and of course the store manager knew you needed a tiny cup of coffee to pick you up during your afternoon grocery shopping.
Free samples let us know someone cares in simple - and perhaps even inexplicable - ways. They are a moment of relief, of happiness, of revelation that asks for nothing in return.
Perhaps we should provide our own free samples. Perhaps we should take time to show we care in simple and inexplicable ways and ask nothing in return. Random acts of kindness: Just think of them as those delicious jalapeño poppers, and I bet it will be hard to remember what life was like before.
