Does It Seem as if Certain Retail Stores Are Forever Having Sales?

neil on 04/10/2015 - 17:40

NZ Herald: A price too good to be true?

Results of a new Consumer New Zealand study throw doubt on the authenticity of so-called slashed prices at least two high-profile retailers.

The watchdog monitored prices of eight products on sale at homeware giant Briscoes and Farmers department store over a 13-week period. All eight items were on special at least two-thirds of the time.

If you look at PriceSpy on a regular basis you will see many of the best price drops are usually proceeded by a price increase of about that same amount. Briscoes & Farmers are certainly guilty of this but I think Dick Smith takes the cake.

Not much consumers can do other than researching and using sites such as PriceSpy to determine whether the price is truly a bargain.

General Discussion

Comments

  • Dunno on 04/10/2015 - 18:18

    Stuff like this seems extremely shady to me

    Briscoe Group managing director Rod Duke said specials were never permanent.

    "We'd be pulled up. The Commerce Commission are just a savage bunch of people and they are seriously on the plot."

    "Was" prices were based on the manufacturer's recommended price and benchmarked against competitors, he said.

    • Kiwi on 04/10/2015 - 20:23

      The thing is that almost everyone knows that their companies' rarely don't have a sale on, and are often re-discounting products week after week goes against what he seems to think is happening.

      I have heard many jokes about Briscoes half yearly sales, and that they are actually more like half weekly sales, etc.

  • Toddy47 on 21/10/2015 - 16:01

    Retailers shoot themselves in the foot by having constant sales. If I ever walk into Briscoes and see a product at full price or small discount; I won't even think of buying it, and instead walk out and go somewhere else. I, like many Cheapies users, am a bargain hunter adept in the skill of finding the best price. The first thing I do when I see a "massive" or "clearance, 90% off" sale is Google the RRP or compare to a "normal" retailer.

    The shops are trying to fool shoppers into thinking they are getting an awesome price "80% off retail", when in reality it's only slightly cheaper than a competitor which isn't or sale, or regular sale. This get's the buyer thinking they must act fast or take advantage of this "bargain" without researching or exploring other deals. It is also a tactic to get people through the doors, am I'm sure places like Briscoes noticed this when they started having "massive" sales and decided to continue as it brought people in.

    The worst are stores which have their own branded products (Like Dick Smith) where they can set their own RRP or MSRP at ridiculous prices, then market the product at 75% off and still make a profit (5m Gold HDMI cable - Was $100 now 75% off $25!).

    • Kiwi on 21/10/2015 - 17:10

      Yea, it's called impulse. Marketers love to play on a shoppers impulsive instincts and that's why they have such ridiculous discounts, and also why they have such loud ads. This works even when no discount is really available, it just appears that way, as you mentioned above.

      The thing with the community here is that there are multiple people looking for and at deals, so someone might post what they think is a good deal, but in actual fact a smaller store is selling the same or similar product for a cheaper price, the OP just didn't know about it. It's all about contributing for everyone's gain, shoppers and retailers, to create a healthy ecosystem.

      Obviously the Briscoe group, and others, have never learnt that constant sales don't work. I noticed that the DSE Holdings stocks have plummeted recently too, their rise was pretty short lived.

  • Jay on 21/10/2015 - 17:26

    India has an interesting approach by setting an enforceable Maximum Retail Price on packaged products. No matter where you are, or how remote, retailers are not allowed to sell product for over the marked MRP. Prevents blatant profiteering on goods when in limited supply or limited competition.

  • Avantime on 26/10/2015 - 21:42

    PB Tech, Godfreys and Bike Barn are also practitioners of somewhat shady pricing policies. Bike Barn made it all the way to Fair Go.

    Dick Smith was OK until a few months ago. Now they spam sale Emails every single day and on Pricespy you can see prices go up and down, up and down every single day.

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