I still have the second 15 ounce bottle of baby shampoo I purchased 10 years ago in a BOGO – buy one get one – moment.  The optometrist suggested it would be a simple way to treat the rosacea on my eyelids – close your eyes and rub a little shampoo over the area every once in a while in the shower. It would have made sense to get a little bottle and try it out, but sale items at stores really can cloud your judgment. Right after the office visit, the stuff was on sale – BOGO! This will last for some time; I won’t have to worry about replenishing; and look how cheap it is! 

(As an aside, I can’t say BOGO without thinking of the doctoral student with that name who attended URC for several years in the 1970s.  He was from Indonesia and brought his family over for the last couple years of his work here.)

I often speculate (while standing in the shower) on whether this was a wise purchase.  Logistics optimization analysis just doesn’t work very well in this case. I certainly did get the best cost per ounce price possible. But the sale amount was so small that opportunity costs are negligible, and the only other thing I might have bought was a pack of baseball cards which have lost all value anyway. Storage costs might apply but the bottle didn’t bother anyone, sitting serenely on the crowded shelf for seven years before it was opened.

I do wonder if the shampoo is any good after all this time.  It seems to be darker than the contents of newer bottles although there is no expiration date – maybe they didn’t use expirations back then.  A couple of times I actually used it on my hair and it still lathers up just fine.  I’m not sure what to make of the optometrist’s latest admonition about taking care during the application, like maybe the whole concept was flawed…

In three or four years when the current bottle is nearly gone, I hope I will buy just one smaller bottle and not mind wasting the four cents I could “save” with a larger size.  But I will likely only make the purchase when there is a sale, and it will probably be one of those “25% off all health and beauty items” deals, with a minimum purchase level so I will have to lump it together with Q-tips, cotton balls, and toothpaste to meet the requirement.  Hopefully I will have a coupon for the toothpaste.