5 ms·

I can speak to 25 years ago: the answer is yes. Here are some of the things I saw: * Marking items up 30-45 days ahead of a big sale. This allowed our price to

I can speak to 25 years ago: the answer is yes. Here are some of the things I saw: * Marking items up 30-45 days ahead of a big sale. This allowed our price to be 25% off instead of 10%. Or sometimes, our sale price probably should have been the regular price. This happened all the time, and people fell for it hard. Usually this would happen before a 10% off everything sale. * Price adjustments from competitive shops. All of a sudden on some non-advertised sale day the laser printer would spit out a new low every day price if a strategic product was priced above the competition. * Some price adjustments occurred to game the competition. We did this a lot with appliances where we'd mark up a model we knew the manufacturer had a ton of inventory. The competition would buy a few truckloads and then we'd run $200 off when they ran their $100 off add. The only thing the internet has changed is the speed price changes occur and has enabled some other kinds of buy this get that deals.

ecaron 12y ago
You need to comment more on HN. Everytime I see your username I think "Why doesn't he have more karma - he typically responds with gems."
- droopyEyelids 12y ago
  Probably sticking to what he knows rather than turning into another Internet know it all is what keeps his comments at a high level of quality.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
corysama 12y ago
In the furniture biz, lots of places have laws restricting how many days/year a given shop can do "going out of business"/"total clearance" sales. Otherwise, they tend to run them non-stop for decades because they are so effective at bringing in customers. According to my friends that have worked furniture retail, it was common practice to mark everything up 300% for a week then have a "40-60% Off!!!" sale. Customers would be very excited about how much money they were "saving" even though the reality was that they were buying at a net markup compared to a few weeks ago. But, a few weeks ago the shop was much, much quieter even though the prices were lower. So, what's a shopkeeper to do?
- justincormack 12y ago
  In Europe, there are rules about sale pricing for all items, they have to be at the original price for a certain period. They still manage to game it a bit, but slightly less so, eg some items are normally overpriced etc.
  - SixSigma 12y ago
    What I have noticed recently in UK TV adverts is that £xxx off special offer and then put an on-screen rider "discount on 'after offer' price". So they pitch it like a sale but really they will just offer whatever is left of their product at a higher price for a while in some store or maybe just online.
  - Gustomaximus 12y ago
    Also offers have to be changed every 3 months in the UK, otherwise it is no longer considered an offer/bonus but the standard price and has to be advertised as such.
- rprospero 12y ago
  I do remember being confused when a local furniture store advertised their "third annual going out of business sale"
  - deeviant 12y ago
    There is a furniture store near where I live that was going out of business for 10 years. My wife and I always joked that they should have a "Proudly going out of business for 10 years" sign. They finally went out of business last year. The business that replaced them was another furniture store which happened to be owned by the same people the owned the first. What gives with that anyways, is that some sort of tax gaming?
    - sukilot 12y ago
      They use bankruptcy or mortgage forceclosure to avoid paying debts, then another (off-paperwork) member of the team buys the assets at auction.
cafard 12y ago
Thirty years ago the atterney general for Maryland, Steve Sachs, hassled a couple of the big local department stores into agreements restricting this sort of behavior.

ecaron 12y ago

You need to comment more on HN. Everytime I see your username I think "Why doesn't he have more karma - he typically responds with gems."

droopyEyelids 12y ago
Probably sticking to what he knows rather than turning into another Internet know it all is what keeps his comments at a high level of quality.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

corysama 12y ago

In the furniture biz, lots of places have laws restricting how many days/year a given shop can do "going out of business"/"total clearance" sales. Otherwise, they tend to run them non-stop for decades because they are so effective at bringing in customers. According to my friends that have worked furniture retail, it was common practice to mark everything up 300% for a week then have a "40-60% Off!!!" sale. Customers would be very excited about how much money they were "saving" even though the reality was that they were buying at a net markup compared to a few weeks ago. But, a few weeks ago the shop was much, much quieter even though the prices were lower. So, what's a shopkeeper to do?

justincormack 12y ago
In Europe, there are rules about sale pricing for all items, they have to be at the original price for a certain period. They still manage to game it a bit, but slightly less so, eg some items are normally overpriced etc.
- SixSigma 12y ago
  What I have noticed recently in UK TV adverts is that £xxx off special offer and then put an on-screen rider "discount on 'after offer' price". So they pitch it like a sale but really they will just offer whatever is left of their product at a higher price for a while in some store or maybe just online.
- Gustomaximus 12y ago
  Also offers have to be changed every 3 months in the UK, otherwise it is no longer considered an offer/bonus but the standard price and has to be advertised as such.
rprospero 12y ago
I do remember being confused when a local furniture store advertised their "third annual going out of business sale"
- deeviant 12y ago
  There is a furniture store near where I live that was going out of business for 10 years. My wife and I always joked that they should have a "Proudly going out of business for 10 years" sign. They finally went out of business last year. The business that replaced them was another furniture store which happened to be owned by the same people the owned the first. What gives with that anyways, is that some sort of tax gaming?
  - sukilot 12y ago
    They use bankruptcy or mortgage forceclosure to avoid paying debts, then another (off-paperwork) member of the team buys the assets at auction.

cafard 12y ago

Thirty years ago the atterney general for Maryland, Steve Sachs, hassled a couple of the big local department stores into agreements restricting this sort of behavior.