Advertised special?
Look again!
The management has a sale and places prominent, brightly colored
'Advertised Special' tags on sale items throughout the store. They also
place prominent, brightly colored 'Regular Low Price' or 'Great Buy'
tags, which are not discounted but mixed on the same shelves. With this
scheme you may never know that the purchase you made was at the regular
price.
You
should know when this scammy routine is used on you: The display
says 35% Off so you pick up a package of socks prominently
situated just below the sign. At the checkout the clerk says, “Those
are not on sale it’s the other brand”.
I
guess management is hoping the consumer will not pay attention to the
price at the till, will be too embarrassed to opt out, or doesn’t care
about being deceived. Some large department stores are pretty good at
this scam. I know I have bought things that I thought were on sale but
weren't. This is so obviously sleazy they must just not care what we
think of them.
Advertising
flyers use similar trickery. Often large words like ‘REDUCED’ are
cleverly arranged on the page so that items that are at regular prices
appear to be on sale. If these advertisements aren’t scrutinized a
trip to the store will result in less than you bargained for.
This type of marketing is not the way to treat dear customers.
But if it works, nobody complains, ethics aren't a concern, and it is
'entirely within industry guidelines' . . .
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return Greed
Profit Consumerism
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