This study aims to develop a reflection on the consumer goods sales promotions, a business strategy widely used in retail to stimulate purchases with promises of advantages and benefits to consumers. The promotion is seen here as a social fact, culturally constituted, as a generalized and social phenomenon. We are therefore faced with a collective way of action, thoughts, beliefs and feelings that move and make individuals likely to buy. From the media narratives and discourses analysis of a study group – women of the middle classes of Rio de Janeiro – informants of a qualitative research, we observe the merging of symbolic motivations with practical motivations that lead to consumption during promotional activities. The symbolic reason ends up operating in systems which have reason and practical utilitarianism as central features. At this point we capture the magical character of deals and their symbolic efficacy in the consumption field.