“Wuah! 70% discount! Must buy!”
Think again, whether you MUST buy that item. Its easy to be swayed by the big numbers 50%, 70% etc. Sometimes we end up buying things we don’t even need!
However, at other times we’ve are conned to buy something at an even higher price than before the discount! I think some dishonest retailers are still at it.
A while back, I went to buy a floor scrub at a popular department store. RM1.50 it said. When I went to pay for it, the cashier told me that it was the old price. The new price is RM2.50 she said but you have a 20% discount so its RM2.00.
I was not happy but its only a small amount so I did not want to squabble over it. After paying for the brush, I went back to the aisle to check because I was sure that I saw all similar brushes priced at RM1.50. However, a couple had new yellow tags with the “new price.” I went back to ask the cashier how come the same brush has two different sets of price tags. She told me that they had not put in the new price tags for the rest.
Hmm…. I guess that with the “SALES”, the new price tag is added over the old price. The price is marked up so that in the end you pay more after a 20% “discount” compared to the original price.
So better be careful next time you shop during “SALES”. Of course most sales are genuine but you must research and know your price. Another thing, I never buy bedding during non-sale periods because its quite annoying to find the same thing going at 70% less the next week or month when they have sales.
Hmm…good advice! Thank you MG
Times are hard. People cheat. But come to think of it, people cheat even when times are not hard.
i hate it and i consider it as a scam or cheating!
Its definitely a scam by unscrupulous retailers.
Now that I am house shopping, I totally can see that too!
Rather go for a shop who is not on sale and is honest and will try to give you a discount.
If shoppers don’t do research and buy on impuls, alot of business people will WIN the price war!
House shopping is fun. 🙂
If I was in the same situation, I might just tell the them that I cancel my purchase and make refund. It’s not about the amount of money, it’s about principle. Usually, I’ll browse through the flyers from carrefour, tesco, jusco, or giant.. before head off making the purchase. And i’ll know roughly what sell at what price….
That would be good to do, however, the place was packed, the queue was long and it wasn’t the cashier’s fault so I let it go. I had a milion and one things to do. Sometimes letting go is easier. Terrible huh.
the last time we went to get our discounted chocolate milk, the cashier “beep” the original price… after checking with her superior, they said “computer not updated!” Good thing we managed to claim the discount back. It was quite a lot since we bought quite a lot too…
Ah yes, thats another thing. Must check the receipt too because sometimes it doesn’t show the discount as in your case or sometimes when you get home, one or two items are missing. 😛
It is normal trick, prices marked up. Some of the sale items they advertise in flyer cannot be found in the shop.
Or… you can find the sale items advertised in the flyers but they’re the only cheap things. 😉
I used to buy a lot of unnecessary items during great sale, and later just to find out that I don’t need them at all!
Yes, silly isn’t it… but we still do it….sometimes. hehe.
It always happens…diff price, plus, a lot of ppl don’t check their receipts.
Sometimes I forget to check mine too!
So very true. Visited HomeDec yesterday and found out the same story. Later I will blog about it cos I am looking out for oven, hood & hob.
Hope you’ve got pictures. Hehe. So kepoh.
I’ve heard of big department stores doing the same thing. I know times are hard but dishonesty and manipulation is not what our society needs, there is already plenty of that going around.
Britt V.
Yes. I was at a big department store.
Ooops! this is true you know… as a retailer myself for 7 years, there are some gimmicks around but then there are also times when the discount is REAL, for stock clearance or moving out sales…
Errr…. care to share what those other gimics are? 😉
I always get fooled by “1 for RM29, 2 for RM50” and so ended up getting 2 which I only needed 1.
Haha. Yes, me too. Its worse when you get 3 for the price of 2. 😛