I think this is genius actually. Notice that the article says the company has divested money from their advertisement funds to run the stores. This means they a

I think this is genius actually. Notice that the article says the company has divested money from their advertisement funds to run the stores. This means they are not loosing any more money they were already spending in ads. Free samples have been a thing for a very long time, and everyone agrees it makes sense. Now they are only asking customers to pay shelf price for the free samples they get, and the large majority will do.