Full price is often a scam
This isn't exactly a surprise or a massive realisation. But these days for many products the full sticker price is just the maximum amount of profit the seller thinks they can get away with. This will vary between the type of seller, but it will likely be most egregious when the the seller is closely tied to the product being sold. For example, yesterday I purchased a new pair of jeans (it's been a while, although it's still too warm here to wear them yet) and on the recommendation of my partner (she knows a thing or two about clothes) I got it from Levi's.
At the moment they are running a sale where pretty much all discounted items are 50% off! Only select lines are discounted though, which does seem better than the retail store I worked at where all "old" stock joined the sale, but then again Levi's is more of a "specialist store", i.e. the focus is jeans.
What's more though, they would really like you to have an account with them which straight away gives you £5 off anything including sale. Then there is the points like system that accrues with every purchase and the birthday voucher etc. Then if it isn't a sale item you can use student discount etc which is 20%!
With all these offers available, why are most of the jeans around £100? That's some profit margin they are willing to cut into. Part of this is psychological. If you feel like you are saving money, you feel better. The other is pure capitalism, even with 50% off they are clearly still making some margin on it. But also shows how much profit they are making on products where a customer is paying full price.
This isn't to specifically call out Levi's, this is just what inspired this post. There are plenty of other companies that do the same and are even more egregious.
At the moment they are running a sale where pretty much all discounted items are 50% off! Only select lines are discounted though, which does seem better than the retail store I worked at where all "old" stock joined the sale, but then again Levi's is more of a "specialist store", i.e. the focus is jeans.
What's more though, they would really like you to have an account with them which straight away gives you £5 off anything including sale. Then there is the points like system that accrues with every purchase and the birthday voucher etc. Then if it isn't a sale item you can use student discount etc which is 20%!
With all these offers available, why are most of the jeans around £100? That's some profit margin they are willing to cut into. Part of this is psychological. If you feel like you are saving money, you feel better. The other is pure capitalism, even with 50% off they are clearly still making some margin on it. But also shows how much profit they are making on products where a customer is paying full price.
This isn't to specifically call out Levi's, this is just what inspired this post. There are plenty of other companies that do the same and are even more egregious.