Create Good Sales, Sears!

Guess what? All patio furniture at Sears is currently 20% off for our
Memorial Day sale!

I figured you probably wanted the Garden Oasis Five piece bar set from
the Oakbrook collection. I think it's the only bar set we've carried
for three years in a row.

It's a hundred dollars off and selling at 399.99.

Happy shopping.

And it's not nice and it'll get you a one way ticket out of the
store...or, if you really tick someone off, you can get arrested.

I know what you are talking about. You are talking about when items in
hardlines go on a "all on sale" event. That's when every item in the
department goes on it's standard AOS sale. Happens about every two
weeks or so for like three or four days at a time. Other days, certain
items go on better sales than the AOS. On top of that, appliances also
have regular savings event if you use a Sears card and whatnot.

And for your information, patio furniture is not set up that way so
your advice is useless in this situation anyway.

So don't do this and I actually would hope that PFB would pull this
comment because it's promoting fraud.

I actually think it's better to leave the comment here with your
explanation attached. Maybe it will make someone else who is already
doing this think twice before doing it again.

I know what you mean, Rosie. I want to say WOW when I see a sale
price. I want to be offered something too hard to resist. It's the
only way to shop.

If you are looking at patio furniture that we regulary carry (sounds
like you are) those don't usually go on good sales. I know that
occasionally they do a twenty percent off sale. Items for one season
only usually go on steeper sales.

Best time to buy patio furniture is in the early fall/early
winter...steep discounts. I bought a 800 dollar seven piece set for 70
bucks a few seasons ago. (It helps if you are the one that does the
markdowns for them. LOL) Deals do exist...you just got to play the
waiting game with some of them and wait until we are trying to clear
the place for Christmas.

at A&P supermarket. They would go on sale occasionally, and it was an
actual sale. Periodically a "Sale" sign would go up, and the price
was the same as the regular price.

I spoke with a manager about it, and he claimed that was just a sign
they had in the back, and he would speak with the produce manager
about getting a sign with the regular price that didn't say "Sale".
Yeah, right.

Needless to say, nothing changed. I lost respect for them and they
lost some of my business after that experience. I don't like being
screwed around, and I definitely don't like being lied to.

As someone else pointed out, this is a marketing ploy. As always, it
pays to be an alert consumer. Frankly I don't see why they would put
a set like that on sale at this time of the year. Maybe at the end of
the season to empty the shelves. After three years I'm surprised you
just don't buy it.

Rosie C.,

Business 101 here:

Probably because their margin on the hard goods is much lower than
apparel.

Try places that sell primarily patio furniture. Try googling "patio
furniture" ( for example ) and see what you can find in your area.

BillR.

Those kind of sales are just to get you to look at it.

1. I agree that tiny amounts off don't make it a sale. I remember
one clothing store that would, for example, take a $50 top and mark it
as being "on sale" for only $46.90. Ooh, yeah, that makes a huge
difference. I couldn't afford it at $50, but at $47, it's a real
bargain. Lame.

2. Stores find expected, typical ways around laws governing sales.
For example, I worked at a department store that would have some items
permanently "on sale," then maybe two weekends a year (every six
months), they would go OFF sale so the letter of the law could be met
regarding regular price v. sale price. Our experienced sale setters
(I was a sale setter but relatively new) would just leave these items
on sale, having decided that it was a waste of time to swap out a
bunch of signage on Thursday night, only to have to swap it back to
the sale price a few days later.