How to Ask Companies for Free Stuff

Summary

An individual successfully obtained free samples from companies by reaching out via email, following a method inspired by Tom Locke's experiment.

Abstract

The article describes a personal experiment inspired by Tom Locke, where the author reached out to 10 companies requesting free products. The process involved identifying companies whose products the author used regularly, contacting them through email, and expressing genuine appreciation for their products while requesting samples. Despite initial skepticism, the author received responses from 6 companies and was pleasantly surprised with the free items, including cologne samples, which reinforced the notion that asking for free stuff can be worthwhile and is often facilitated by companies' willingness to donate or discard surplus products.

Not too long ago I came across this article written by Tom Locke. In that article he talks about an experiment he tried. He wrote to 100 different companies just to simply ask them for free stuff, and the outcome was amazing. So i said to myself “why not try this myself” and i did.

You may not know this, but you can get free stuff from companies by just simply asking them!, it might seem a little weird and annoying to ask a company for free stuff but trust me it is worth it, and i can assure you that they will be glad you asked.

Companies don’t use big percentage of their products and they end up getting donated or even thrown away.

And even tho it seems to good to be true, let me tell you that from a personal experience, it is true and it can be done in only 3 easy steps.

Step #1

My first step was to find the companies i wanted to reach out to. After about 30 minutes of looking around my house for things i use on a daily basis, I found 10 different stores i wanted to write to, then after that, I proceeded to find some way to contact them via email, I also did some research and asked around to see if other people had gotten free stuff from them before just to make sure that I at least had a small chance of getting something.

Step #2

The next step was to write the email, here i did use some help from some online websites and i did some research on how to approach a company.

I started off by telling the company who I was and how much I loved their products, I also included for how long I had been using their product and how loyal of a costumer I was, then towards the end I proceeded to ask them for sample products. Writing each email took me about 15–30 minutes.

At first I didn’t think this was going to work, since you are asking for stuff that other people have to pay for, and like I said before, I thought it was too good to be true but I did it anyways because i didn’t have anything to lose so why not give it a shot.

Step #3

The final step was to wait, Either wait for a response or for a package.

The outcome was surprising, I ended up getting a response from 6 out of the 10 companies i wrote to, which was really awesome.

I ended up receiving multiple packages on different days, mostly stickers which some stores do give away for free, but i was really surprised to get cologne samples, I love wearing cologne so this was a big win for me, plus the cologne samples I got will most likely last me 2–3 weeks which is awesome.

So as you can see, this is a game of luck, some stores might answer you back or some might not even see your email since they probably get thousands of emails on a daily basis. but there is a big chance of you getting a response so why not give it a shot, especially during this time when you cant really go out shopping and you have lots of time at home.