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About LinkBacksState of dumb.Originally Posted by Barakka
Sale is a state of mind
It takes a smart person to resist social programming.
State of dumb.Sale is a state of mind
It takes a smart person to resist social programming.
That is the problem really. In this country we are all brought up to think the marked price is rigid.
If people actually asked you'd be surprised how they can instantly adjust the prices. Recently I went into a builders merchants to buy some stuff and they wanted £29.99 for a bottle gulley, Within a moment the price was down to £18.99 because I told him I could buy it somewhere else for £18.99.
People just seem afraid to ask or to question a price. I do find it wrong that supermarkets special offers can often be a higher price than normal - That is just unfair and playing on peoples trust.
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The verdict ? After 12 months of running this way they had to move back to doing Sale prices as people just didn't get it, they went to the big out of town shopping complex and looked across at the big furniture shops and went to the ones with a Sale on !!
Sale is a state of mindYears ago, I told a friend that owns some HiFi shops that pricing everything as £xx9.99 was insulting and patronising. After all, £799.99 is as close to £800 as makes no practical difference to anyone. He showed me the sales figures and the sharp drop when they trialled rounding up in one shop, and not in the others. That shop suffered a sharp fall. I don't remember the exact amount but it was serious, something like 20%. The other shops stayed on an even keel, or even increased marginally. One customer even told the manager at another shop that she didn't shop at the main one (where the prices had been round up) "because it was expensive".
For far too many people, £800 is £800 while £799.99 is "£700 and something".
My friends remarks were along the lines of ..... pricing at £xx.99p might be insulting to a few, but as so many are thick, it is simply what we have to do.
I had trouble believing him that so many people were that stupid, but the more I thought about it, well, the big stores, Tesco and the like, don't do things for no reason. If they do this type of thing, and they do, it will be because they've trialled and tested the hell out of it and it just works. And it's not just one or two big stores that do it, they almost all do. Ask yourselves why? It's 'cos the public, as a group, are "fick".
And if they're "fick" enough to drive 40 miles to buy something at £799.99 rather than £800, you can imagine how gullible they are to clever wording in "sale" adverts.
You mention big supermarkets, but they're all driving home this price match nonsense nowadays. In the end you just buy wherever your morals take you. I just go Sainsbury for big shops, Co-Op round the corner for convenience (and where I live there's often amazing stuff in the reduced sections) and Asda for whisky. Dunno why but they're about £10 cheaper than anywhere else for a bottle of hooch.
Bit of mental maths doesn't help either - £2 for 1kg of loose Broccoli or £1.50 for 600g packaged? Very slight difference (0.05p/g), but by discounting the more expensive ones to something that looks cheaper than the cheapest on sale they probably make a few bob.
Its because its not British.
Go to most tourist heavy cities, find traders, ask them who are the worst at haggling, and Id bet its the British.
I've noticed for years that, by accident or design, it's sometimes cheaper to buy two small rather than one big, even when the small is exactly half the size of the big.
It's taken a while, but I've even got the wife checking that, not just assuming that bigger pack equals cheaper, 'cos while it often does, it's surprising how often it doesn't.
eg. 250g pack = £1.00 therefore 500g = £2.00, but 500g pack = £2.50
It happens. I always work out the price per weight, and I've been surprised as well by the odd time that smaller packs end up cheaper than bigger packs (it's great when it happens with crisps though). On the other hand, I also consider how much I am willing to consume and I try to avoid buying more than I need. If I am after 500g, then I'd rather buy the 600g pack in the example than the 1kg. This is more of an issue with meat, or items with stricter expiry date.
Supermarkets always have "sales" on though. 2 for 1 on this, BOGOF there, BOGOHP on something else. 2 for £3 with these, or 2 for £3.50 on that. I absolutely hate it in a way. I nearly always buy what's on offer, because anything that's not on offer is typically overpriced by comparison. Going into a supermarket that doesn't do deals and being able to buy the actual variety and quantity I want, rather than the one dictated to me by the supermarket, is a very refreshing experience.
The supermarkets should be required to do what some, maybe all, US supermarkets do, which came as quite a surprise to me.
If something is marked as "5 for $10", and their usual price is $3 each, you save $5 by buying 5 only, right?
Well, no, sensibly they charge you the reduced price no matter what, so you'd pay $2 each, even if you only bought 1.
Now, whilst that does encourage you to buy 5, you arent penalised for buying fewer.
The problem with supermarkets is when the 'special deal price' or the 'weekly offer price' is actually more than the normal previous shelf price.
I'm not so bothered by the quantity pricing as virtually all areas of product sales are based on that.
They thrive on misleading people with terms which attract peoples attention like super value pack, Which is 33% more expensive than having bought the same quantity in smaller packs.
And yet, the Government, and various other organisations, spends its time making changes to things which have far less impact on daily life, rather than requiring retailers to be honest and not misleading.
My favourite con is selling people marked up vegetables because they still have the leaves on.
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