It’s great to find a good deal on something. Everyone likes the feeling of having saved some money with a purchase. Retailers certainly rely on that fact when they offer up something for a low, low price. You’re always left wondering, though, exactly how much they make off this stuff at the regular price.

There is one rather large retailer in particular who, whenever I went there, regularly had a great number of items listed at over half-off. Now that looks like a spectacular deal. But you get to the point where you wonder if they ever sell anything at full price. And you certainly don’t ever want to buy something at full price from them, since they will almost certainly reduce the price again in a week or so.

And, in fact, I was in there once and overheard a sales clerk talking to a customer.

“Wasn’t this drill on sale for half off last week?”

“Yes. But this week it’s not.”

“Can I get it for the sale price, though? I couldn’t get in here last week.”

“Let me check,” said the clerk. He turned to a computer behind the sales counter and clicked a few things and typed a few letters. “Ok,” he said, “I can give it to you for 60% off. It goes back on in two weeks.”

No one ever offered me such an opportunity. I once had to go buy a new cordless drill at full price with no time to “shop-around” and the guy behind the counter never blinked as he told me how much I had to pay. He certainly never looked up in any electronic crystal ball whether or not the drill would someday be priced lower. But, then again, I never asked.
There was a retail chain here in Canada that got in trouble some time ago because of their “discount” practices. Turned out, they had a number of items listed at 50% off for almost 75% of the time. And that, according to some obscure regulation, is apparently not legal. But apart from that, it’s also quite duplicitous.

Anyway, I’m pretty tired of the whole idea. Certain things you need and other things you want and the idea of economy can make you into a puppet. The newspaper comes every week with a stack of flyers tucked into it. The regular flyer consists of 4 to 8 sheets of paper folded in the middle. The only “deals” worth looking at are on the front and back covers. The majority of it is appropriate for setting fires or perhaps emergency use in the bathroom.
A new “promotion” that I’ve seen in some stores over the last couple of years is the mysterious and powerful ‘Manager’s Pick.” An item, displayed prominently, will have a white sign next to it with “Manager’s Pick” in bold, stylish letters.
Someone walks by and pauses, looks at the item.

“Oh, that’s a good deal.”

The item is placed in the cart.
Of course, whatever it is, it’s at its normal price. I think it’s sometimes at a higher price. “Manager’s Pick” seems to mean, “I, the Manager, will now select this particular thing for the suckers to buy. I bet I can sell a hundred of them at regular price. Heck, I bet I can raise the price and sell a thousand. And, in the flier, let’s say that there are dozens of Unadvertised Deals in store.”

And so MultiMegaMart, GmBH makes all the money and the manager gets the satisfaction of carrying the mouse to the master. And then he has to go spend the money he makes in other stores, buying other Managers’ Picks. He probably silently sheds a tear.