So I just walked past a shoe shop ‘sale’ and that got me thinking about my inner ozbargain. That’s effectively a 20% off sale with required commitment to purchase 2 pairs (doesn’t sound anywhere near as appealing, does it). Wondering who’s seen similar adverts where all is not what it first seems?
Sale! “40% off 2nd Pair”
LMrSavings on 07/11/2018 - 14:24
Comments
Under or over?
Definitely "Nothing under $10", and his sign was accurate.
It's 20% at best. If the 2 pairs aren't the same amount, the lower one gets 40%, that's technically less than 20% for both.
40% of the second pair makes it hard to wear. I need the full shoes
Yeah it's fairly common. To me "2nd Pair" is more eye-catching than 40% off, so I don't find it misleading.
Similar adverts are inflated RRP sales, where it's still cheaper elsewhere after the discount. Another is the "up to" sales where the whole range is discounted but only a couple of items discounted significantly and they put "Up to 80% Off" on the sign, for example.Say a $100 product is advertised as 40% off (reduced to $60). Then a 10% discount coupon is offered making you think that it is now $50 … but the 10% is actually taken off the $60 (not the original $100) reducing the product to $54.
Eh - that's just maths and order of operations.
Yep, it gets tricky though when they say 'take a further 10% off'
Does that mean take 10% of total price, or 40%+10%? :)
I wish it would mean Price - (40% + 10%) haha! I don't think I've ever seen a sale work like that. (But if any did, that'd be amazing)
Wondering who’s seen similar adverts where all is not what it first seems?
It's still a sale (so long as they didn't price-jack I guess), and it's for the benefit of the shop because it incentivizes the second sale. I mean - shops discount and have sales for their own benefit, they're not charities.
'Up to 50% off'. That basically means that nothing is over 50% off.
And "up to" also includes 0. So maybe 1 cheap item ($1?) at half price makes the ad legal, but don't expect any other high percentage discounts there.
It is all in the perception.
There is a trader in a local market, who has a large sign stating "Nothing under $10". The words "nothing", "under", and "$10", all work to make you think there is probably a bargain there.