At the top of my list are stores that proclaim that “everything is on sale, everyday” and all I can think is that they have no idea how to properly price their products. So what that tells me is that they don’t know or care about sustainable pricing, dont care if they are cheapening their brand forever and that the value of the product is most likely way less than you or I ever care to know. In the end you get what you pay for.
And then there are the web stores that slash through the so-called regular price and show a so-called sale price. E.g. Regular price
That strategy also prevents you from looking at any of their other pages and finding the regular price point (which is probably the sale price), but I assure you that you will never see that product sold for the slashed price anywhere, at any time. Folks, some simple Google's for comparison-shopping will often disclose that the so-called sale price is near (and shockingly sometimes above) their competitors regular pricing. Do stores really think that consumers are that inexperienced and gullible?
Finally we have one of the oldest, yet most backwoods tactic of them all, the “Sale, Store Closing” signage. There was a jewelry store next to ours that used that exact signage for over 6 years running! All I can say is that it was one of the most hideous operations that I have seen in a long, long, time, adding that the entire town most likely rejoiced when they finally lost their lease.
If you’re a consumer reading this we suggest that you shop around and compare, but make sure that you do not sacrifice lasting quality just to save a few pennies now. If you’re a business and you fall into any of those categories above, we would like to suggest that you use Google to find some informational sites which may help you with correcting your misguided course.
Try being in the jewelry business.. Especially in the fine jewelry / custom end of things where you are competing against the mall stores and their 90% off sales..
ReplyDeleteI'm forced in to it on my site even if its a token sale price discount.. Retailers have bred it in to shoppers for decades.. But when everything is on sale all the time, can it really be a "deal"??
Your pain is felt by many businesses. Given the long duration these stores have been offering heavy discounts, I am not necessarily sure that it was the wisest thing to do in a deep recession.
ReplyDeleteMany small, medium and big box stores have been giving away the farm for so long that consumers are going to expect/demand them to maintain that pricing. Clearly the deep discounts many retailers are offering of late are not sustainable for any long term duration.