May 22 '99
Volume 155
Nonsensical
Cents Multiple Pricing Melee
Sometimes, I think there was a class on, Absurd Math For Advertising,
but I didn't get to attend and am left wondering who dreamed up such as I
see practiced in the retail food industry, and to some extent in many
other
industries. Perhaps, it was that fewer items were
sold in the stores of my youth, or maybe, the price of the average item could
be measured in cents, rather than dollars, but in those days nobody sold
something priced 4/$2 or 3/99¢.. Instead, these
items would have been priced, 50¢ and 33¢,
respectively. Perhaps, there was an unwritten rule or, perhaps, the average
consumer was able to perform simple arithmetical computations on the fly
and knew that 4 x 50 = 200 or 3 x 33 = 99. Nonetheless, split prices were
used whenever the price for a single item was not a whole number or if the
customer was encouraged to save a penny or two by purchasing more than a
single item. An item would not be marked 4 for x where x was a multiple of
4, because the price of an item would be the same price per item whether
one was purchased or several. A more common retail price might have been
2/39¢ or 3/$1 with individual items priced
20¢ and 34¢ respectively.
I suppose the coming of age of "dollar stores" contributed to the phenomena
witnessed today. Paper towels are advertised 2/88¢, fruit
drinks 10/$1, and Band-Aid adhesive strips 2/$4. Now that a penny is practically
worthless, there is less incentive to save a penny, thus we accept the preceding
as normal. Advertisers have long taken advantage of the ignorance of the
masses when promoting their products. Price manipulation fits right into
their schemes. Why sell one for 44¢ when
2/88¢ encourages someone to purchase more. While a fruit
drink sold for a dime is quite inexpensive, why not pressure the consumer
to buy a dollar's worth? Like I said, I missed the class and can only hypothesize
as to how this all began, but there is a dark side to split pricing.
Most places selling an item priced 3/$1 will charge 34¢ if
the customer only buys one. However, some may charge 35¢
or 39¢. There is no law against any of these practices. Instead,
the business philosophy, "let the buyer beware" or "what the market will
bear," rules. Occasionally, certain parts of the retail industry push the
philosophy to the limit.
I am thinking of the convenience store industry, who, for the sake of their
willingness to be a convenience to a convenience-oriented public, have no
qualms about pricing their goods at profit percentages that can only be labeled
"gouging." These folks are no better than the human parasites who rush to
the sites of tornado damage or other natural disaster, hoping to sell, at
exorbitant prices, portable electric generators or other goods in short supply.
The government is quick to crack down on such offenders, but overlooks the
equally flagrant abuses of the convenience store industry. Yeah, yeah, it's
a free country, and all that, so if someone wants to buy a "snake oil" patent
medicine that claims to cure cancer, he should be free to do so. Maybe, that's
true, but you can bet your sweet whatever Uncle Sam would have a say in that
matter.
I have become so disenchanted with convenience stores that whenever there
are no signs, tags, labels, or other markings to indicate the price of 12
oz. canned soft drinks, I won't even ask a clerk the price; I just don't
make a purchase. There is usually another convenience store within a block
and chances are the prices are prominently displayed. If I am to be fleeced
by the industry, I want to know it up front, not when I get to the checkout.
Currently, I have an established personal policy that any regular sized bar
of candy priced 69¢ or greater will be passed over. It has
nothing to do with affordability, it is simply too much to pay for an item
that could have been bought in a grocery store for fifty cents or at a mass
merchandiser for even less. Besides, I have already stored enough fat grams,
internally, to last me well into the next millennia.
My wife has become a jelly bean aficionado in her middle age, though not
to the extreme of Ronald Reagan. Most convenience stores sell small bags
of jellybeans, circus peanuts, chocolate covered peanuts, etc. These are
usually displayed on hooks lining a pegboard, and most have a retail of 2/$1.
The price is very prominent, usually pre-priced by the manufacturer and more
often than not by a manufacturer who sold his soul to the convenience store
industry. If one looks closely at the retail price, though bifocals may be
required to discover the price for a single package, it is normally
59¢. Is that a rip off, a legal rip off? I think so. You
should, too, when you consider how few people buy more than one package.
Recently, I have observed a preponderance of snack crackers, I call them
nabs, pre-priced at 25¢. I have seen this among most of the
branded nabs, including Toms, Lance, and Frito-Lay. Yet, as I encounter more
and more of the combo-convenience stores, those married to fast food chains
such as Subway, Taco Bell, Pizza Inn, Baskin-Robbins, Hardies, McDonalds,
etc., I have difficulty finding the pre-priced snacks. I have a feeling somebody
figured that in order to pay for the new building and produce the healthy
profits the absentee owner requires, the 25¢ items are just
not profitable enough. Why, they may not make but a dime on the sale, whereas
the same item not pre-priced and selling for 50¢ might produce
a 22¢ profit. Once more, I will pass up the item if I know
that just down the road a conventional convenience store will have the pre-priced
item.
I guess I have been burned once too often by unrelenting gouging of the
convenience store industry, but a few days back, I got to the counter to
pay for a snack and did something I would not have done even five years ago.
The following is an explanation of that event.
Traveling from Hattiesburg to Pontotoc, I stopped at an Amoco station just
off Interstate 20 in Meridian to gas my car with my preferred brand of gasoline.
Finishing that chore, I walked inside to wash my hands in the restroom (okay,
okay, but I always wash my hands afterwards). Thinking I needed something
in the way of a snack, I perused the candy section. Each candy bar set off
an alarm in my brain, for each was 75¢ and clearly over my
self-imposed limit.
"No matter," I thought to myself and walked toward the nab section.
More alarms. There were no pre-priced nabs among all the brands. But, wait.
The sign on the rack of Lance brands, written in red ink on a day-glow, lime
green, starburst sign, read 3/99¢.
"Now, that's reasonable," I thought, but still, I would have preferred Toms
to the Lance brand. Oh, well, the miserly can't be choosy, or is that how
they get miserly?
As I placed the package of "Toasted Crackers and Peanut Butter" on the counter
the clerk scanned the item and announced, "Fifty two cents."
Something did not compute. I stood there with about sixty-five cents in silver
in my hand, but turned to glance over the top of my glasses at the rack of
Lance nabs to make certain I had read the sign correctly.
Looking back at the cashier, and questioning the price, I responded, "The
sign has three for ninety-nine."
With a cadence in her voice indicative of phrasing oft repeated, she replied,
"It's forty-nine cents for one, and the tax makes it fifty-two, or it's
ninety-nine cents, if you buy three."
My darker side began walking to the file cabinet of my brain's archive section
to search for some suitable, if not obscure, obscenity. However, my better
nature stepped forward and directed me to look her squarely in the eye, close
my hand around the coins I held, smile, and say, "I'll pass."
Then, I politely turned and, unhurriedly, walked away, leaving the item on
the counter and feeling somewhat amused at the confused look on the face
of the clerk.
It was not the sixteen cents that irked me, as I later told my wife, because
in an average week, I either refuse all the penny change I am given, at the
point of purchase, or else accept the pennies and cast them about the parking
lot for youngsters to find. No, the lack of money was not my motivation in
rejecting the item, rather my motives are those etched in granite by guiding
principles that call for a fair price for a day's work, a fair price for
a loaf of bread, and a fair price fairly marked.
Addendum: In the above, there did not seem to be a good place to insert
a comment about clothing store pricing, hence, it is added here. Discounts
have been the norm for sellers of apparel for many years, and the consumer
has gleefully contributed to the perpetuation of discount pricing by rushing
to sales that slash season's end clothing by 30 to 50 percent. Bear in mind,
the average consumer is so mathematically illiterate that a 30% off sale
means only there is a savings off the regular price, and the typical consumer
is unlikely to be skilled in estimating the cost of a suit that retails for
$229.00 and is discounted 30%.
In the discount example above, those consumers who can compute the estimated
price of the suit often fail to arrive at the answer by the simplest method.
Most consumers would estimate 30% of $230 (either $69 or rounded to $70)
and then subtract that amount from $230, arriving at about $160. A simpler
method would be to reason if something is discounted 30%, then it will cost
the customer 70% of the original price. Therefore, the consumer will pay
70% of $230. The mental math to multiply 7 times 23 should not stump anyone.
The answer is within a dollar of the earlier estimate, but requires less
math to calculate.
Seldom, do I see a lingerie ad in a newspaper and not smile as I think of
a faux pas of the late, Mr. Bill Bridges, the first owner/ manager
of the Pontotoc Radio Station, WSEL. Bill Bridges was once heard, over the
airways, encouraging shoppers to take advantage of a discount sale on selected
items at Michael's, Pontotoc's premier department store.
Michael's had the basement of their business dedicated to selling
overstocked seasonal items as well as providing a means to deplete their
inventory on slow selling articles. The basement was referred to as
Michael's Bargain Basement. On the particular occasion that I remember,
women's underwear was being sold at a savings of 50%. However, the way Mr.
Bill described one of the sale items and the associated savings was somewhat
amusing to the local listeners.
Fortunately, the AM station's signal strength did not broadcast much farther
than the county line as Mr. Bill closed his promo for the sale at
Michael's by proclaiming, "…so, ladies, hurry on down to
Michael's Bargain Basement, and get your panties half off."
Word has it, more men showed up than women. Or was that just something Bodock
Beau said?
Mind Games
Sunshine And SUV'S
There are times when I wonder whether "someone" is watching over me with
a deliberate agenda, using Nature and the actions of others to play with
my mind. Most folks that I know believe not only in the existence of angels,
but of the angels, winged or otherwise, flitting about Earth. Some believe
that each person has a guardian angel(s) watching over him or her on behalf
of a Supreme Being. Of course, the Supreme Being in this case is more often
referenced as God, but depending on one's religion a different title may
be chosen. There are even those who suppose that God, Himself, pulls all
the strings and "causes" the pain and suffering we must endure as well as
happiness and joys we experience. That may be the case, but such a theology
seems to limit the powers of a Supreme Being to merely that which the human
mind can conceive, and immediately prompts me to think of escapism, a mental
exercise that frees one from accepting responsibility for his or her actions.
Still, others may keep their Supreme Being in a closed container, much like
the Genie in Aladdin's lamp or the bottle found on the seashore. Once the
services of the Most High are needed, all that is required is to rub the
lamp or open the bottle. Such is an example of those who practice a religion
for their own convenience
My personal theology may contain elements of all the above, but is not
represented by any of the above. My theology is far to complex to reduce
to a few simple sentences. It is not too complex to describe, but to do so
would require more words than the limits of a weekly issue of
RRN. If there were not already
so many books dealing with individual's concepts of God, perhaps I would
write out my thoughts on the interaction of God or lack of the same in the
daily lives of people. However, since I am not "schooled" in theology, who
would care what I had to say?
Before I stray too far from my opening thought, I should return to it. It
really does seem that a higher power toys with my circumstances for his/her
personal amusement. Though, I seriously doubt God chooses to do so, perhaps
lesser beings of the spirit world enjoin such activities. A perfect example
of an activity follows. Often, a given day has been overcast, cloudy, rainy,
or whatever describes a day without sunshine when as soon as I head toward
a western destination, the clouds loose their grip on the horizon and expose
my eyes to the full wrath of the setting sun. Yes, a beautiful sunset is
sometimes evident, but all too often the sun directly before me prevents
me from enjoying the display. For to take my eyes off the highway even
momentarily is to risk rear-ending the motorist in front of me.
The frequency of this Sunshine After A Cloudy Day "thing" occurs far
too often to be, merely, coincidence. Yesterday, 5/10, as my wife and I drove
southward along Interstate 55 from Brookhaven toward Hammond, LA, we encountered
some inclement weather. The entire day had been overcast and forecasts had
promised some rainfall for much of the western boundary of Mississippi. I
remember the time of day as around 7:00 p.m., when I mentioned to Barbara
the likelihood the sun would come out about the time we turned westward on
I12 toward Baton Rouge. She smiled and agreed to the possibility, for she
has witnessed such a happening on many of the occasions in which we are driving
southwesterly from Pontotoc to Greenville, on a Sunday afternoon. As might
be expected, by the time we reached Hammond, the evening sky was broken and
direct sunlight was trying very hard to locate my vehicle. I was thankful
for our late hour arrival in Baton Rouge, because the sun never made itself
fully present. Yet, I do not count it a victory or a point for my side, because
the clouds did lift and the setting sun did contribute to eyestrain.
Another example of mind games plays itself out in parking lots of malls,
shopping centers, supermarkets, and even on Main Street, Anywhere, USA. I
am not picky about having to get the closest parking spot, so I do not cruise
the lot looking for an empty parking space nearest a store entrance. Yet,
I prefer to park in a space not bordered by a pickup with a camper, a van,
a Sport Utility Vehicle, or any other oversized vehicle that hinders my ability
to check for approaching motorists while I back out of the parking space.
Regardless where I may be parked, I am almost assured that when I return
to the parking lot, a pickup/ camper, van, SUV, or other monolith will have
snuggled along side of me while I was away.
Arriving at our motel for the evening, I found a parking spot near our room
and felt somewhat fortunate, in that the distance required to transport our
luggage would be less than normal. I felt somewhat fortunate knowing that
the likelihood of the 1/4 ton truck parked next to me leaving before I needed
to back out of the parking space the next morning was greater than my leaving
before the truck moved. We had stopped to eat in McComb before driving the
remaining leg of our journey, so once parked, we were there for the night.
Our business meeting was not until 11:00 the next morning, so what are the
odds the truck would still be there when we departed? Well, I would have
said they were astronomically in my favor, but when we backed out of the
parking space, leaving the motel for the meeting, the truck was still there.
It was the only vehicle left on the lot, at least on our side of the motel.
Coincidence, or mind games of a higher being? I shall leave you to decide.
Bodock Beau
You'd Better Believe It
Beau heard of a devout, religious, business woman who became a frequent flyer.
Since flying made her very nervous, she always took her Bible along with
her. Reading scripture helped her relax on long flights. On one occasion,
a man seated next to her saw her pull out her Bible. He gave a little chuckle
and smirk and went back to what he was doing. After a while, he turned to
her and asked, "You don't really believe all that stuff in there do you?"
The lady replied, "Of course I do. It is the Bible."
He said, "Well, what about that guy that was swallowed by that whale?"
She replied, "Oh, Jonah. Yes, I believe that, it's in the Bible."
He asked, "Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the
whale?"
The lady said, "Well, I don't really know. I guess when I get to heaven,
I'll ask him."
"What if he isn't in heaven?" the man asked.
"Then you can ask him," replied the lady.
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