Almost all of us have asked the question at least once in our life time – “Is it a genuine sale?”
Agreed not as life changing as “Will you marry me?”, but it is a question that is rather telling in itself and one that any retailer worth his salt should be able to dignify with a resounding yes.
Unfortunately that is not always the case.
So when H asked me “Is it a genuine sale?”, it took a bit of dithering.
There is many a retailer that thinks ‘sale’ is simply a cheaper product.
Shoppers go into the store expecting to get said brand at half price. What they often encounter is, while the prices have been halved, so has the quality of the product. Retailers have been known to stoop as low as getting an entire consignment of ‘sale’ product from China, mix it with a tiny batch of the real stuff, much like blueberry muffins from the supermarket, where there is a lot more muffin than blueberry, and put it out there to meet the sale frenzy.
Ask your self the question – is this what they were selling before the sale? Last week? Last month? Last season? If you have never seen it in store before, chances are this is a custom-made sale product.
Some retailers don’t even bother with alternate products. They simply play with numbers and perception and expect that will do the job. A banner will proclaim ‘Upto 70% off”. The price tag will proudly brandish ‘Now 599’.
You go ‘whoopee’ thinking that you are getting nearly 70% off, but really, was that product actually AED 1999 before the sale? Who do you imagine would pay that much for it? Or more importantly, who did they think would buy that product at full price in thousands but is now available for hundreds?
Not all sales are genuine, nor are all sales a tactic to get the customer into the store.
There are many retailers that follow best practices and do not assume that the consumer is a fool.
Those are the brands or stores that genuinely knock down prices to clear stock. Often, those are the same stores where, sale or no sale, you find a healthy, regular purchase pattern. They are also the same ones where everyone goes on the first day of the sale, sometimes, waiting in line even before the store opens.
