Oct 6, 2026 – Andy is in OurLittleCorner today

At Last, a Free Lunch That’s Actually Free! (Maybe)

Who hasn’t at one time or another heard the phrase, “There is no such thing as a free lunch?” It was certainly part of the wisdom passed down to me by my parents (more than once).

Evidently free lunches became an issue sometime in the late 19th century when it was common for bars to lure customers with offers of free food. As you can see by the below excerpt from a magazine article published in 1892 about San Francisco restaurants, the “free lunch” promise was not without its skeptics:

It wasn’t until 1933 that the no-free-lunch phrase as we know it today made its public debut (at least according to Wikipedia). It was the punchline to a story published by American writer and journalist Herman Fetzer in the The Cleveland Press :

The story is a fable about a king who hired four hundred economists to write an outline of economics. When they told him the outline would consist of four hundred volumes, he executed half of them, and continued doing this each year until only the chief economist survived, and made his summary in eight words: “There is no such thing as free lunch.“

The no-free-lunch credo gained scholarly credibility in 1975 when economist and Nobel laureate (and Playboy contributor) Milton Friedman published his influential book,”There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.” Without going into the econometrics of it all (which I don’t fully understand anyway), the idea is that, without exception, any exchange of goods or services involves a cost somewhere along the line.

But does the no-free-lunch dictum apply to the modern world of e-commerce? You may recall my recent blogs about the lure of free shipping and free returns offered by online merchants. It turned out that each of these freebies had its own hidden costs.

But there’s hope. I read in a recent NYTimes piece that a number of alternative e-commerce sites are arriving on the scene that may challenge the no-free-lunch rule; they’re called dopamine sites.

These sites originated in South Korea last spring and are now trending world wide. Basically, they allow viewers to go through the motions of shopping for and ordering goods without ever having to pay for them (and without ever receiving them either). Making such imaginary purchases taps into something called “anticipatory utility,” the dopamine-induced good feelings we get from looking forward to something we desire — hence the label “dopamine sites.”

Fake Haul is a good example of such sites. It was created by a Microsoft developer and patterned after a similar Korean dopamine site. The below blurb from the web site explains how it works:

I tried it out and, although it’s not my cup of tea, the site looks, feels, and acts like a legitimate e-commerce web page — right down to the notice that by adding a bit more to my digital shopping cart I would qualify for free shipping.

But to my way of thinking the biggest challenge to the no-free-lunch postulate is from the site called “Dopamine Kitchen” which offers free lunches (literally). This site was launched in India this past June and to date has amassed 2.7 million views (that’s a lot of dopamine flowing under the bridge). With the very apt URL foodnevercomes.com, the site allows viewers to place orders from an extensive on-line menu for (fake) deliveries. Viewers even can follow the progress of their (fake) deliveries on (fake) Uber-like maps. And the kicker is that the site offers actual recipes for the food that never gets delivered — allowing you to make it at home (for real) to satisfy that dopamine rush.

Does this mean that we have moved beyond the era of the not-so-free free lunches of 19th century and entered a dopamine-driven age where a free lunch (fake as it may be) is really free — and just a few mouse clicks away? According to a recent essay by Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behavior at Queensland University of Technology, probably not.

Professor Mortimer points out that the “free” part of these sites can be deceptive. For one thing, they have the potential to serve as gateway platforms leading to what psychiatrists call CBD or Compulsive Buying Disorder. According to a research article in World Psychiatry CBD is real and it’s scary.

Additionally, these sites can be incredibly valuable to marketers who can use those fake purchase choices to track online browsing habits and create targeted ads. Mortimer warns, “If you do purchase that pretend jacket, or order that delivery of fake tacos, don’t be surprised if you start seeing more ads for the real thing.“

So it appears that the “bold and saucy” paneer tikka (with a 4.3 rating) I ordered from the Dopamine Kitchen (and never got) may not qualify as a free lunch after all. Despite that, I did manage to download the recipe and would like to share it with you.

So, for your dining pleasure, I’ve included a printable recipe free of charge. But don’t blame me if ads for Indian food start popping up on your screen while you’re enjoying your homemade Paneer Tikka.