the.com/loss leader
Sells milk at a loss so you walk past the overpriced everything else.
means A product priced below cost to pull customers into a store, where profits on everything else they buy make up the difference.
from Straightforward retail jargon from the 20th century: the item 'leads' customers through the door while taking a 'loss' on its own price tag — no hidden story here, just a merchant's honest description of the bait.
- classic example
- rotisserie chicken priced below cost
- the real product
- your foot traffic, not the item
- costco rule
- hot dog stays 1.50 since 1985
- risk
- backfires if shoppers buy only that