When the Sale Isn’t Worth It
Black Friday and Cyber Monday (November 23 and 26, respectively) are just around the corner, which means the holiday sales season is coming. But as sales grow, there are also annual reports that the goods are actually not that much and are not worth their price. How do you know when it’s time to buy? According to Consumer Reports , the answer is “never assume sales prices are accurate.”
Deceptive pricing methods, in which stores advertise the wrong initial price of their items for sale in order to improve the selling price, are becoming more popular, writes CR. “Since 2014, more than 150 lawsuits have been filed against more than 80 retailers claiming to have defrauded consumers.”
How it works? CR writes that state and federal laws generally prohibit stores from comparing a sales price to another price “unless that ‘anchor price’ has been offered to the public within a reasonable period of time.” However, this reasonable time frame has not been set, which means that states make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
And this gives the shops a lot of leeway. Independent price analysis of certain items by the nonprofit advocacy group Consumers’ Checkbook found that items in stores such as JCPenney, Kmart, Macy’s and Sears were on sale almost every week, which meant they were never listed on this ” original “price, for CR. The selling price was more or less “real”.
Other types of “sales” to avoid are: Doorbuster deals, which are designed to attract consumers to the store to buy other goods, but are usually limited and not bargains; BOGO sales, which we usually equate with a full 50 percent discount, when they often buy one [full price] get a 50 percent discount; and bait-and-switch tactics whereby the advertised item is virtually unavailable in your local store.
So instead of basing your purchases on sales prices, write down what you really want to buy and compare prices from different retailers. There are many browser extensions and apps that can help you with this, including CamelCamelCamel (which is tracked specifically by Amazon), Coupon Sherpa , Earny , Honey, and Price Tracker .