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Friday, June 02, 2006

Merchandise Pricing and the Surprise Discount

I recently purchased shoes that had a $65 price sticker. But, when I got to the cashier, they rung-up for $45. I went back to the display to see if I missed a sales sign, but I had not.

We all feel good when we end up paying less than we expected, but is this really a smart strategy for the stores? I had already made the decision to buy the shoes at $65, so they lost $20 in extra profit. What about the pair at the other store that I didn't buy because they were marked at $80, maybe they were really only $60?

Stores need to do a better job of providing accurate pricing for their products. It is also very annoying when no price is displayed. Many times I walk away without buying something because there is no price marked and I don't want to bother with waiting in line to find out the price.

That really doesn't add up right.

2 comments:

shoshanamom said...

That happens to me a lot. Most recently when shopping at toys r us, both the sandals for skyler and bathing suit for shayna were less then on the tag. It happened at Macy's too...but they have a scanner there you can use to see the actual price (ie with the sale discount) so I was using that as a guide. the sales lady didn't even know what was on sale, she just said to use the scanner. I wound up getting shayna a really cute DKNY shirt for less then $9 which for DKNY is amazing.

Unknown said...

A side effect of more and more people being taught to *act* like computers instead of the other way around.

That's one that really ticks ME off.