Sometimes when you purchase an item, the cashier will randomly ask you if you’d like additional related items. For example, when purchasing a hamburger, you may be asked if you’d like fries.
It is usually a horrible idea to agree to these add-ons, since the cashier does not inform you of the price. I would like fries for free, but not for $100, and not even for $5.
The cashier’s decision to withhold pricing information from you should be evidence that you do not, in fact, want to agree to the deal.
For most LW readers, it’s usually a bad idea, because many of us obsessively put cognitive effort into unimportant choices like what to order at a hamburger restaurant, and reminders or offers of additional things don’t add any information or change our modeling of our preferences, so are useless. For some, they may not be aware that fries were not automatic, or may not have considered whether they want fries (at the posted price, or if price is the decider, they can ask), and the reminder adds salience to the question, so they legitimately add fries. Still others feel it as (a light, but real) pressure to fit in or please the cashier by accepting, and accept the add-on out of guilt or whatever.
Some of these reasons are “successes” in terms of mutually-beneficial trade, some are “predatory” in that the vendor makes more money and the customer doesn’t get the value they’d hoped. Many are “irrelevant” in that they waste a small amount of time and change no decisions.
I think your heuristic of “decline all non-solicited offers” is pretty strong, in most aspects of the world.
Sometimes when you purchase an item, the cashier will randomly ask you if you’d like additional related items. For example, when purchasing a hamburger, you may be asked if you’d like fries.
It is usually a horrible idea to agree to these add-ons, since the cashier does not inform you of the price. I would like fries for free, but not for $100, and not even for $5.
The cashier’s decision to withhold pricing information from you should be evidence that you do not, in fact, want to agree to the deal.
You could always ask.
I ignore upsells because I’ve already decided what I want and ordered that, whether it’s extra fries or a hotel room upgrade.
For most LW readers, it’s usually a bad idea, because many of us obsessively put cognitive effort into unimportant choices like what to order at a hamburger restaurant, and reminders or offers of additional things don’t add any information or change our modeling of our preferences, so are useless. For some, they may not be aware that fries were not automatic, or may not have considered whether they want fries (at the posted price, or if price is the decider, they can ask), and the reminder adds salience to the question, so they legitimately add fries. Still others feel it as (a light, but real) pressure to fit in or please the cashier by accepting, and accept the add-on out of guilt or whatever.
Some of these reasons are “successes” in terms of mutually-beneficial trade, some are “predatory” in that the vendor makes more money and the customer doesn’t get the value they’d hoped. Many are “irrelevant” in that they waste a small amount of time and change no decisions.
I think your heuristic of “decline all non-solicited offers” is pretty strong, in most aspects of the world.