Shiny colourful stickers don’t mean low prices
Have you ever found yourself tricked into buying something you didn’t really need just because it was “on sale”?
Recently I’ve noticed a plethora of brightly coloured price stickers and signs littering the shelves of my local shopping market. Sometimes they indicate an actual sale while others indicate—with a very similar tag—a “regular low price”, meaning that the item isn’t priced differently but it’s just special because it has a shiny sticker on it now.
Yesterday I was a little more cautious while searching for some chicken. I noticed a “Fresh Cut Price” sign near some boxed pre-cooked chicken and thought I’d check it out but at closer inspection the deal wasn’t as good as they made it seem. Notice the before and after price:
Just shows you need to be watchful and don’t just shop based on shiny colourful stickers.
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Hmm, yeah, that seems like a particularly egregious offense… but really, my pattern is more to look at the end price rather than the fact that it’s apparently on sale. If I know that a pound of ground beef should normally be ~$4-5, I can identify a bargain whether or not the store sees fit to tell me.
I noticed this TOO! At Walmarrr.. err.. some “discount” store, they have big tags saying “Price Checked!” (or something to that effect.) They stick out perpendicular to the shelf so you can see it when walking past that aisle.
I’d love to see the video surveillance cameras of all the customers that walk over to check the “special” item out only to pause and turn around upon recognition that they have been duped.