After seeing lackluster sales flyers and a few horrendous “After Christmas Sales” we decided to post a brief warning. Beware of crafty marketing and tricky advert wordings!
The particularly egregious “sale” that prompted this post was an “After Christmas Clearance Sale” that featured the Rockwell Jawhorse. The sale price was $177.75, which reflects a whopping 0.7% discount from the typical price $179.00, and that doesn’t include shipping. That’s a mere savings of $1.25!
So… buyers beware, some retailers are out to get you.
I hate it when they do stuff like that. I guess it depends on what “clearance” actually means. In retail is there any kind of uniform definition?
I think “Clearance” is just another buzzword to attract attention. While I am sure retailers want to “clear out” overstock merchandise, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are reducing the prices.
Clearance is supposed to refer to closeouts and discontinued items. Unfortunately, Will is right – it’s now just a buzzword to be used regardless of an item’s status.
I have also found that some retailers will actually raise the prices of items as they are place on clearance. Maybe not with respect to the items’ full regular prices, but certainly higher than their typical sale prices.