Friday Archive Dive: The Loss Leader
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 5:00AM Today's Archive Dive comes from Oct. 27, 2009, when I wrote a piece in favor of the loss leader.
When your local grocery store offers an item -- say a loaf of bread -- at an extra low price, that item is being used as a loss leader.
A loss leader is an item that is sold for little or no profit (even, literally, at a loss) for one reason and one reason only. To encourage you to walk into the store. Because, the grocer knows that once you walk into the store, you're not only going to buy bread, but you're going to probably buy milk, eggs and maybe even those little cookies with the chessmen on the
When the total sale is rung up, the grocer had made a tidy little profit. All because he was willing to take a loss on one of the items.
And you can, too.