The Ramblings of a Somewhat Unstable Mind

Posts tagged ‘Shopping’

Today Only, Below Cost!

Stores advertise their wares for sale to the uneducated and idiotic amongst us who, upon being told that we should be driving a Toyota, go out and sell our Cadillac and buy a Prius. We head right out the door to buy those new Tampax that hold 3 times the normal amount of blue fluid. Now, I’ve dated what I figure to be more than my fair share of the fairer sex, but I’ve never seen anything blue. I’ve seen tempers blew, I’ve seen dynamite-like explosions of fury and jealousy, but never anything blue. But, again, people run out to buy cars because a guy drives on in a commercial, and 3 sexy, curvaceous blondes whistle at him when he drives by, his toupee flowing in the wind and The Foo Fighters blaring on his stereo.

What Tag-Line Pulls You In?

Does someone saying “Buy it today and we’ll pay the taxes” make you want to drop what you are doing, warm up the car and drive for an hour to get to Crazy Lou’s Discount Diamonds and expect to buy a flawless engagement ring? Saving a few dollars, the unsuspecting retailer buys what the store tells them is the best deal. The best deal is usually the very best deal that they can make that will fleece the most money out of said unsuspecting retailers.

All Prices Previously Increased Prior to Sale

One of the most common sales scams is the “BOGOHO” extension of the “BOGO” sale. The BOGOHO sale sees you buying one at full price to buy another one at half off the regular price. This means that it’s a 25% off sale, just an average sale for the average store. But they will advertise BOGOHO sales up the wazoo, and it works because people mistake it for a BOGO sale, where you buy one for the regular price and get one free, otherwise known as a half-off sale.

Now, why do so many people pay full retail prices when they go shopping? If you are in the market for a new, high-definition LED television with smart screen technology, you may just want to wait a week or two – it will show up for sale somewhere in town. If you’re willing to shop over the Internet for larger purchases, the sale prices can be online found instantaneously. Now, you don’t need to watch the ads on TV or click on ads that pepper websites, you can just type in what you are looking for and the country you live in, and you will be peppered with sales, end-of-line sales, going-out-of-business and foreclosure sales.

The Shopper’s Mantra

Every shopper who knows what they’re doing knows that you never pay retail, it’s just plain wrong. If a store can afford to have a 75% off sale on one weekend, then have everything back at full price the following week, then they are making a lot of money off of those retail price sales.  Because if a store can make a profit selling items for 75% off, then they have room to haggle.

That's the one from the TV ad!

Whatever happened to haggling? I can remember even haggling over the price of Levi’s Red Tab jeans at the local K-Mart store. You couldn’t do this with a sales clerk, but grab one of the many managers and you had yourself an instant sale – but no more! We need to get back to real retail, where the shopper’s mantra of “We won’t pay full price!” is heard echoing through the aisles.

The Meaning of All This?

People now have access to many shopping apps on their smart phones. You just scan the product’s bar code into your phone and it will tell you where it is on sale, where and how to get there from where you are. Show this to the sales clerk or the manager and ask for a price match. If they don’t give it to you, leave, and leave behind any other products that you may have had in your basket.

Smart phones have eliminated the need for automotive and hand-held GPS mapping and direction provisions systems, and even the need to do comparison shopping.

Video killed the radio king, and it seems that smart phones are now killing the dishonest store sales schemes.

Get a smart phone. Get the apps for shopping and travel. You will never pay retail again, and the savings will more than pay for the cost of the phone and the carrier contract monthly.

About these ads

Category:

social commentary, Thoughts I thought I thought.

Tagged with:

Tag Cloud

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 81 other followers

%d bloggers like this: