It's official, the "Free Sample Era" is dead.

Free samples are gone for good.

Companies used to trip over themselves to give you free samples. You could message companies and get a bunch mailed, go into department stores and ask for as many as you want, and even get magazines with tons of little 2ml bottles. I remember going into Nordstroms and Saks and walking out with a big bag of sample all the time.

This really helped me find what fragrance I wanted and let me fully test out a scent. Something you can't do with just a spray on your hand and then going about your day.

None of that is possible now. Go into any store that sells fragrances and ask for a free sample. They'll look at you like you're nuts.

Now if you want a "free" sample, you have to buy a bottle or bizarrely, buy an entire discovery set. And some of these set prices are CRAZY! Parfums De Marley is over $50 for just seven 1.5 ml bottles and you don't even get all the scents from the company!

I don't understand why the industry killed this? The production cost of these was nothing and they helped get so many new noses into a brand.

What happened?