Apr 5 2010

When is a sale not a sale?

When the prices we are paying for items are no cheaper than we can normally obtain them – despite the claims that they are 50% or 75% off the normal price.

Reading the Daily Telegraph today I read on the front page how big firms are slashing prices ahead of the election to try and tempt buyers in to the shops rather than have them delay their expensive purchases until after the election.

The Telegraph gives several examples of such drastic price cuttin. Take the a offer of a satnav system discounted from £299.99 to £129.99 at a major high-street retailer. This organisation has more than one “Upto 50% off SatNav” sale each year. What they actually do is put the price up to the full £299.99 for a few weeks in the year to be able to be able to legally claim these massive discounts, but in truth the units are sold at the lower price for more weeks in the year than they are at the higher price.

The same organisation sells camping equipment for ridicously high prices for a few weeks early on in the year and then discounts them by 50% for the majority of the remaining season.

It is now common practise for stores to offer such massive discounts, but it might appear to the more observant to be nothing more than a scam – making the public believe they are getting a bargain – when they’re not. Given that these products spend most of their shelf life at the discounted price and that the retailer could not afford to make a loss, or very little profit, on these items for such a long period of time, it is obvious that the companies could really afford to sell the products at just above the massively discounted price all year around and still make a decent profit.

Sales are no longer sales, it’s just that the period in between them is an opportunity for these companies to make a massive profit on the ‘sale’ items whilst they comply with the law on sales.