Why the free Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich is a fucking ripoff
 

Hear me out!!!!!! On slickdeals.net there is a mass herd of members who vote free fast food to the top as soon as it's posted because it's SUCH a great deal. Now I love deals, and I love food, but all it takes is a little critical thinking to prove that these fast food deals are a fucking ripoff.

The latest deal to make it big is a free Arby's sandwich. The deal requires you to visit Arby's site, sign up for their spam with a valid email address, and then print off the coupon.

The coupon requires you to buy a regular size drink. This is stated in the slickdeals thread, but it still gets voted to the top with the highest rating.

Let's go a little deeper into whether this is a slick deal.

First, one must consider the fact that you are now driving to Arby's to get this free sandwich. Unless you go to Arby's every single day, or unless Arby's is literally on your path to or from work, or unless you had plans to go to Arby's on the exact day of the deal, you are being inconvenienced by driving to Arby's. Gas isn't free! If you calculate how much gas one may use to drive to Arby's, it really isn't that much. But gas isn't the only variable cost associated with driving.

There are numerous research documents floating around the Internet that prove that driving a car in the US costs anywhere from $0.50 per mile to an astounding $1.00 per mile. Some of this cost is a sunk cost for owning the vehicle, such as insurance, but a lot of it is the variable cost I mentioned earlier -- the more you drive, the more it costs. The biggest factor in vehicle depreciation is mileage; therefore when driving a car, every mile depreciates it a little more. Other costs like tires, oil changes, various fluid changes, etc. are all based on mileage, and also need to be calculated on a per-mile basis.

Using this knowledge, if Arby's is 5 miles out of the way from your daily route, you have put 10 miles on your car, and used 10 miles of gas. For me, this is roughly $2.00 in gas. My car gets 20 MPG, 10 miles total, a gallon of gas is roughly $4.00, divided by 2, etc.

So now just to get to Arby's instead of going my daily route, I've spent $2.00 in gas. I'll be conservative and say that the variable cost of driving my car 10 miles not counting gas is $0.25 per mile, so that's $2.50.

We're now $4.50 in the hole and we haven't even consumed our delicious roast beef sandwich yet!!!!!!!

Now I'm at Arby's. Why am I here? Oh, right, I have a coupon for a "free" roast beef sandwich. But there's a problem: fast food places put a heavy discount on combo purchases. If you order a #1 combo, it's much cheaper than ordering the items separately. The coupon states that I have to buy a drink to get the free sandwich. Arby's is known for having higher than average fast food prices, so the drink is gonna be at least $1.50. If I purchased the combo, the drink would have been discounted to approximately $0.75. So there's a possible $0.75 loss compared to combo pricing.

Let's go over the logistics of going to Arby's and buying a sandwich. Buying a sandwich alone is somewhat logical; this piece by itself could be considered a snack. But we're forced to buy a drink! Now we have a sandwich and a drink. People typically don't go to a fast food place for a roast beef sandwich and a drink as a "snack." What if you decided to really stick it to the man and buy some fries to go with it? Now you have a whole Arby's meal, but you got the sandwich for free! Right??? Well, sure, but now we have to add the cost of the fries, and the extra you're paying because you didn't get a combo, but bought the items separately. The fries alone are probably $2.00 (I'm having major trouble finding Arby's prices on google), but the combo price is $1.00.

So now you've bought a combo for $3.50. The smallest combo Arby's has available. The combo is regularly $5.00, so you've saved $1.50.

So I've spent $4.50 on car expenses getting to Arby's, been forced to buy a drink whether I was thirsty or not, or whether I even drink soft drinks or not, then been temped to eat an awkward snack or make a meal out of it, both of which lose value due to not being in a combo. In the end the coupon has saved me $1.50, which brings our grand total to -$3.00, and being spammed with Arby's emails in your inbox.

I've lost $3.00 by using this coupon. This probably seems trivial to most people, but for me it's not about the lost money, or even the stupid roast beef sandwich. It's about people not critically analyzing a situation and making smart decisions.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know!!!!!!!!!!

depends on how you feel about arbys. there is one across the street from my work.

so for example, i can walk over there, wich costs nothing but a little energy and some exersize, and its free. option 2 is that i can drive over there on a test drive and go through drive through (wich costs me nothing).

i guess its a matter of opnion and where arbys is in corrolation to you and how you feel about arbys

So you were able to drive a car to a restaurant, have someone make you a sammich and serve you a drink, and it only cost you $3.00?

What's the problem here?

And in the immortal words of Bob & Doug McKenzie (paraphrased): "A buck fifty's a buck fifty, eh?"

There's no problem. I just find it odd that members of a site that exists solely for great deals are willing to give a deal the highest rating possible when in reality you're saving $1.50 at most, and in many cases, actually losing money.

I suppose it all comes down to the gross value of the coupon, which was $1.50, right? I mean, you can't expect this value to come without strings. It's not like they're going to deliver the sandwich to your home. However, for those who like Arby's and would have driven somewhere anyway to get a bite, I don't see the problem with being out the $3.00. It would have cost me more than that to take the bus there and back.

I do see your point though. Like they say, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Even things that don't require you to fork out any money at least require something else, like your time/attention/responses, etc.

We live in the age of marketing. Something worth anything is always made available for a price. Arby's isn't a charity.

I think this goes back to the more general principle that discounts can only save you money on things you were going to buy anyway. If you were going to be at Arby's anyway (or some such similar place for food) then the coupon saves you money, if not then it doesn't as you pointed out.

Another example of this is bulk purchases. My local grocer sells raw carrots in a one pound bag for 1.99 and a five pound bag for 2.99. Buying the bulk bag doesn't save you any money until you use more than one pound of carrots before they go bad.

but if you like carrotts then it's a hell of a deal:thumbsup:

:thumbsup: Why would you even look at an Arby's coupon if you're not an Arby's fan? Coupons only save money if you use them for things that have value to you. That's the reason those sites show lots of great deals. You can pick and choose the deal(s) that work for you.

You can apply that logic to any kind of deal. Seems like someone just pissed in your cornflakes or something because there are those that are happy to not spend $1.50 EXTRA for a portion of their lunch that the were probably going to do anyways.

I don't have to drive to get to most places so all those things you state are not true for everyone. I don't have to incur the wear and tear of my car, insurance, gas, but what I should defray the costs of my sneakers and socks because those wear out as I'm walking.

I guess you should also include your salary since you are taking time out of your busy schedule to drive out of your way. How long was that drive 30 minutes total? What about if you are in traffic, pad it to 45 just in case?

The best part is that if you don't like something you don't have to participate in the special or the deal, but sites like slickdeals work for everyone because it services the great community at large and not just one type of individual.

or...

Are you just pissed that there isn't an Arby's closer to you so that you could get a wonderful roast beef sandwich for free and maybe even pick up a second or third one?? I mean c'mon you were going to get a coke anyways to wash those bad boys down. And fries, you gotta get some of the curly fries to add some more savory to your plate.

i would think it's not that great of a deal because in order to get the deal, you have to eat something from arbys.

People on sites like SlickDeals don't care about actual costs. They're addicted to discounts, sensible or not.

This reminded me of this cartoon

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/mathematically_annoying.png

I'm continually amazed at how many people don't understand the last graph.

While I can agree that there may be a few of these, your conclusion is a bit judgmental and unrealistic. There are tons of smart shoppers who are capable of determining what's sensible and what's not. Is paying full price for something you'd buy anyway when you can save a buck or two more sensible?

This.

Maybe I haven't given them a chance, though, as I've only eaten there twice.
Once when I was a kid, and then again about a year ago.
Both times the sandwiches were pretty bland.

I've put together a better sandwich standing at the fridge at midnight.

Exactly.

In Canada a "cheap deal" at a local fast food place is closer to $8.00, so coupons like that are solid gold when shopping here.

But then again you are still paying money to be eating that crap, lose-lose.

Yeah, for a long time I have been amazed at the economy of scale as it works in the food industry in the U.S. It gives credence to the term corn-fed Americans. It's my understanding that dirt cheap corn is an integral part of their system from the bottom up. And I'm pretty sure that much of that is subsidized, so it's not merely an economy of scale within corn production alone.

It's a pretty messed-up system when you look at it from a Canadian perspective. Sure, ours has similarities, but the degree/scope to which their system works is astounding.