You'll get free shipping on most online stores if your order exceeds $35. Supposing what you are buying doesn't cost $35 would you buy numerous other "filler" items which you don't need immediately so you get free shipping? Would this be a good strategy to save some money or would you be spending more money and in so doing cancel out any gains/savings you would have made?
I do buy filler items, but only if I am really close to the free shipping total. Sometimes it will be something that I know I will use or I bulk buy instead. It depends on the store, but when I buy from CVS I just buy some generic products or things that are on special.
I would just gather the items one by one until I can avail of the free shipping offer. But in my case, going to the physical store is so convenient that I would just be inclined to shop there instead of shopping online.
Well, that's the trick that companies use to make you spend more money, and rarely is it a good idea to throw in filler items, unless you're within three or four bucks of the free shipping threshold. Otherwise, chances are high that you'll spend more on those filler items than you would on what you actually want with shipping. It's a neat trick by companies that works on a lot of consumers, but you shouldn't fall for that same trap because it's such a blatant trick.
If free shipping requires $35 and I can get $5 shipping on a $20 object, I'll probably buy something I've been looking at for awhile, but never had any incentive to buy on its own. I have a small list of things that I'd like to own have no incentive to buy alone. I've picked up a few good books, a Rubik's cube, and a few good shirts this way. I still use all of these products, but if free shipping wasn't an issue I probably wouldn't have these things.