To think they would never give/send free samples of women's products to men...

[SummerGold]

...so why do I always get loads of free men's samples (fragrance, cosmetics) given to me?

I was lured into making a small purchase yesterday at a department store with the promise of a bag of free samples. The offer was quite clearly targeted at women due to where in the store the offer was making place. I made the purchase, and then realised later that over half of the samples were for men.

Disclaimer 1: They are 'free,' I know, so I am probably BU
Disclaimer 2: I think I know the reason, it's because women will get their partners to wear the aftershaves etc and if they like it, buy it them for Christmas/birthdays etc!

So having established that I probably ABU... I still think it's cheeky that they use free samples to lure us women into spending a bit more than we perhaps would otherwise (or indeed spending anything in the first places such as one beauty websites that say "two free samples with every order!" and then one of them turns out to be Givenchy Gentleman).

And I think it's even cheekier because they would NEVER give a bag of free samples to a man that included OVER HALF women's products!! They wouldn't, would they?!

Grrr.

Does women's products in the title sound too much like sanpro?! Sorry if so

As a man, I've never been offered free samples of ANYTHING in a department store. Lucky if I get asked to try a bit of posh bread in Waitrose.

YABU (U for ungrateful in this case )

Ha! I can point you in the direction of where to shop!

YABU to fall for their marketing

But you could always use the stuff yourself. Unless you need a penis to open the bottles/sachets?

No, I don't need a penis to open the sachets (radical feminist here), but I simply don't like the masculine fragrances. So they are a waste on me.

My male partner has bought a few things online from department stores for himself and has got women's perfume or cream samples, I on the other hand have never received men's samples for anything

The whole point of free samples is to lure you in to spending more, so I think it's a bit silly to say they're BU for doing that!

Having thought about it, I was once stopped in a department store (which you couldn't leave without going through the make-up department) by some promotions person offering me a sample of female perfume. I did give her a slightly odd look and she said "to give to your girlfriend or wife to see if she likes it". I replied that I was single so it was a bit pointless.

See, if I’d been running the promotion I’d have done bags with women’s perfumes etc and a bag with men’s, and then asked the customer which they would prefer!