'The deals are just horrible': Shoppers say a lack of holiday discounts has dampened spending

[unblock]

11. even before the internet and microtargeting ads and discounts, sellers used sales to jack up prices

i remember seeing a study once might have been sears or more general than just one store, not sure.

they found that the vast majority of their annual sales were during their occasional "sales", which actually took place a rather large portion of the year.

the "normal" price didn't generate much volume, but quite a lot of profit per item.

one conclusion was that they were segmenting their customer base by artificially creating two markets, one with year-round availability at a high price, the other with more reasonable prices but limited availability. by cramming sales into limited time windows, they leave the rest of the time open to charge more for the people who won't wait for the next sale.

the other conclusion was that this is, in the end, rather unethical because they are deceptively calling the normal price a "sale" price and calling the jacked-up price the "normal" price. i mean, the "sale" price should really be called the "normal" price if that's the price at which you sell 70% of your stuff.

plus, a lot of the people who by at the jacked-up prices are being deceived because they generally aren't informed about when the next sale is and how much the sale price is and so on. if they know and they don't care and don't want to wait, that's one thing. but it's a problem if it's not clear that there's a sale right around the corner.