Don’t you love when your favorite brands suddenly offer 50% off sales? Or when your favorite shoe store has a BOGO sale – time to stock up on those running shoes!
What about the science world?
Oh yes, we love deals. More than you know. Give us a deal or freebie and we will be your favorite customer. Here are 8 examples of deals that make us drop our pipettes and shop…
ELISAs are just one of those items you cringe ordering but they are necessary. Each kit runs about $350-$700 and you can easily blow through quite a number of kits for one experiment. So when there is a deal for free kits, you’d better believe that scientists will stock up!
Scientists are perhaps the only people who will get really excited about deals on fetal bovine serum, a necessary ingredient for cell culture work. Like ELISA kits, a 500 ml bottle of fetal bovine serum is very expensive, costing between $700-900 a bottle. If we can get free bottles during promotional events, you can be sure that we will be willing to buy 4 bottles just to get those 2 additional bottles free!
This one is a personal favorite. Scientists run gels by electrophoresis in order to separate proteins or DNA in samples for downstream quantitation or visualization. This work requires an apparatus and accessories. Imagine getting a whole setup for FREE if we only had to buy some gels. Yep, we are definitely all for this!
Starting a lab is hard work. Think about it like the first day of walking into your new condo or house and realizing you have no bed, no kitchenware, no groceries and no toilet paper. If there is a deal that can save you money, you are all for it!
Every lab can use an extra set of new pipettes, right? There is always a rotating summer student who will need their own set of pipettes. Let’s send that email to the lab asking who needs new reagents or gloves so we can get some free pipettes.
Scientists love T-shirts. We just do. Especially ones that are extra nerdy, like Pi Day shirts. We will shop hard for free T-shirts so we can wear them proudly as scientists (and brag about them being free!).
Sure, there’s always free pizza somewhere on a college campus or research institution. But did you say this free pizza party will only require a 5-minute survey? Hmmm, I have some free time now...
Did I already say that scientists love free T-shirts? If we don’t need to spend any money to earn a free t-shirt, then that is even better! We will do anything for a free t-shirt, such as take surveys, enter drawings, go to vendor shows… One of my favorite shirts had a picture of a scientist riding a unicorn carrying a bubbling flask. I think I took a survey for that one.
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Well, there you go! Scientists get very excited about freebies and deals, just like anyone else. Of course, we will buy whatever we need to get an experiment done that yields quality data but if there is a deal (or a free T-shirt), we are definitely all about it. Happy shopping!
