loss leader

Yet only now is the group visiting sold-out baseball parks — and without even the loss leader of new music to help drum up interest in its show.

This is because carrots are often chosen as "loss leaders" in supermarkets.

Experts told the Pepperoni team it was a loss leader; only supermarkets could turn a profit by bringing in bananas from South America.

“Dairy is a ‘loss leader’ at the grocery store,” she said, and is often the major incentive for other items in the store.

In the early decades of the TV, it was acceptable for news to be a financial loss leader.