Does anyone know how these work or who they supposed to appeal to? And what the newspapers that push them get out of it?
For example, last Saturday's Guardian magazine devoted a whole page to offering me a 20cm Le Creuset cast iron casserole, along with four dishes from LC's very ordinary stoneware range, in a revolting (sorry, 'stunning new') purple colour, for £100. Now John Lewis sells the casserole alone for £95, but you don't have to have a purple one; Amazon has a choice of colours for much less; and the dishes, from my experience, aren't really worth having at any price, and certainly not in that colour.
You can probably find your own examples in any newspaper (although I can't remember seeing any in the FT). And every now and then out falls a whole catalogue full of these offers - Swiss Railway watches, solar-powered underpants chargers and the like. But I really don't see the point - these are unremarkable products at prices that scarcely make them bargains. Who buys them, and do they think they're getting something that's somehow endorsed by the newspaper?
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Newspaper 'reader offers' new
Newspaper 'reader offers' new