Are you a bargain shopper? Do you scour the ads for special sales, going out of business liquidations, and seconds offers? Well, I do have a word of caution for you.
Certainly, this sort of shopping approach can save you money, as long as you are a careful shopper. Unscrupulous retailers do try to sneak some things by you though, in order to help them make a quick buck.
Finding a good deal truly takes time. Don’t expect to walk into a liquidation sale and find the best deal. Just because the sign says, 75 percent off, doesn’t mean it is the best price you can get for that quality of an item.
Retailers, even liquidators, need to make money. They will do their best not to give things away. Therefore, bargain shoppers really need to do their homework and not simply look at the deepest discounts.
Let me give you some specific examples I have observed recently. The other day I was shopping at the local grocery discount store. This store will give you the typical retail price and their price for each tagged item. Look closely at these… I often find the typical retail price to be quite inflated. I even find some outlet items that show their reduced price as higher than the prices I have seen at the local supermarket.
Another example is one I found at a major home improvement store. They were offering a great deal of installing carpet for the whole house at only $99. When you read the fine print, you noticed that you had to buy a certain type of carpet and pad. I need new carpet, so I had this home improvement store give me a quote and had a local carpet installer do one as well. Even though the labor for the home improvement store was only $99 and the local carpet installer was $1000, the total actually was cheaper for the local installer – with a similar quality of carpet.
Let this be a lesson in promotional tactics played by retailers to get your business!
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