Smoke & Mirrors 10/04/2011
 
I apologize for not writing for a while.  My daughter has informed me that, to be a true blog, I have to write more often than when the spirit moves me.  So in case there’s any one of you who have missed me, I’m here … just preoccupied with making Game Nights a good experience for all.

I did get fired up a few days ago as I was preparing for a Game Night.  I was creating a flyer and checking on the internet for the price of a new game I’d not received yet.  Rather than dig through my filing cabinet for the manufacturers catalog and price list, I just Googled it.  Google, being biased, came up with the website of a large online retailer as the first choice and the manufacturer’s site second.  I clicked on the first just to see.  I found the game I was looking for and I found another (junior) version of the game listed as well.  The junior version was listed as having a special price, making it look like you were getting a super-duper deal.  Ok, so now I have to go dig in the files anyway to check this out.  Just as I suspected, that “special” pricing was NOT so special.  It was actually the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.)  The ORIGINAL price that they showed for this item was marked up a full $3 more than the MSRP!

As a small retailer, I saw (and battled) this issue constantly.  I would have customers (without comparing prices) say they could get a “discount” from another catalog.  However, if you placed my pricing (MSRP) next to the catalog, you would see that they had raised the original price before discounting.  No savings to you … and most times you are paying for shipping as well!

And let’s talk about shipping charges too … you should notice that not all prices in that catalog are “discount” prices.  So if some of the most popular items are hiked up in price, even though YOU might not purchase that item, someone else is & thus “paying” for your shipment.

I’m not telling you this as a tutorial on retail pricing or business practices, but just to remind you that even though you are shopping in a small retail store, don’t ASSUME that you are paying too much.  Don’t ASSUME that store owner is rolling in the big bucks and laughing all the way to the bank.  Most small business people are just trying to make a living like the rest of us. 

I used to have a sign hanging in by my front counter.  It read “For those who like to haggle, we’ll gladly raise the price to give you a discount.”  Looks like this same sign is hanging in their corporate offices too.

I’ll jump off my soapbox now.

Carol

 


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