Oh.. Yeah.. my MEMORY DOESN'T WORK!!!

[Crazeyal]

SEARS is closing a location near me. Not right next door, 15 - 20 minute drive. Location hasn't done well since it opened and in these times, it's understandable that a failing chain like SEARS is going to be cutting out the unproductive sites.

Got no problem with them marking things down 10% and not re-stocking the store. The whole idea of an inventory reduction is to get the most $$ while not paying their employees to move unsold merchandise back to their warehouse. I understand Black Friday was NOT going to affect that particualr store too much. I get that I have to be around to catch a bargain, and what I get is nonreturnable etc etc etc

Are the suits there SO removed from the public that they think people won't notice a blatant price raise!?!?

Sporting goods 2 weeks ago:
10% off origional price $84.99 for $74.99 total.

Not bad for a middle size bag, but not a bargain whatsoever. Don't need the bag, but want one. Willing to wait.

Went in the other day... HUNDREDS of stickers with new discounts of 20 - 30 % off. ALL WITH NEW AND HIGHER PRICES!!!

Now.. I was NOT writing down numbers. I *MIGHT* have been wrong... untill I saw the bag...

30% off!!! Origional price $100 now $70!!!!

Screw you SEARS.

The corporation that my Parents swore by was purchased and sliced up decades ago. Your employees do not deserve unemployment, but I will DANCE ON YOUR CORPORATE GRAVE when you drive the last of your customers away!!!

[Nakajo]

This is full of so much bull. I'm not a huge fan of the website, The Consumerist, but you REALLY need to post this on there.

[ViolaPlayer]

I've seen that a lot at "going out of business" sales where everything is marked "Clearance!!!"

It's the psychology of it. They say clearance and people run right over without doing their homework, thinking they are getting an amazing deal.

It is definitely a topic the news media has talked about. Not that long ago, it was right on the msn homepage, a decent sized article on protecting yourself from "liquidators" and "closing" sales. Not only telling the legitimate going out of business sales from the not legitimate but also talking about this very issue. How discounted prices really aren't.

God bless the sheeple. It must really work or people wouldn't keep doing it.

[Dave0523]

For years, we had a store with a huge sign out front...


GOING OUT for BUSINESS.

They were eventually shut down.

--Dave

[Jack7957]

When Media Play shut down here, I noticed their "clearance" discounts were off the MSRP, not their usual selling price.

[Chromatix]

I believe European law requires any discount sale to be calculated from a "normal" price that was *actually* advertised for sale within some period of time before the sale. And this is exactly why.

Of course, it has lead to the "discount carpet warehouse" type places having a particular season, when sales are slow anyway, for setting their prices a long way above their normal - so that they can then advertise massive "discounts" for the rest of the year. Their adverts are extremely annoying on the radio.

[Crazeyal]

Yeah.. I've seen the GOING OUTforBUSINESS before. I didn't yell at the retail slaves, they are just following orders... Man.. I'm STILL ticked...

[Imogene]

When Media Play shut down here, I noticed their "clearance" discounts were off the MSRP, not their usual selling price.

I worked for a Media Play analog in The Chesterfield. When we went out of business, we were marking things down from the labeled price. Only very occasionally, while doing price changes, did I ever notice movies go up in price.

[Rapscallion]

The UK legal systems demands that anything advertised at a sale price must have been at the previous price for the six months prior to the occasion - or at least that's what I was taught back in my school days.

Rapscallion

[PepperElf]

sale prices.... reminds me of when i worked at ames... the jewelry was on sale... and i mean *always*. not sure who contacted them, but one day they came in and told us they had to change the pricing... that if it's *always* on sale, then it's not really a sale.


but for sears, it must be on a store-by-store thing then cos the ones here aren't closing. actually i think they're doing okish. maybe not as good as they might ahve done before, but still saw long lines at the checkouts. nice sale on land's end tho. got myself some boots for the snow here, cheaper than the other shoe stores had.

[JLRodgers]

I remember back when I was in school being taught that, in Illinois at least, there was a 2 or 3 going out of business sales a year max.

It was said that you could practically double your normal prices, slap a "going out of business sale" and almost sell out. That and apparently some businesses make so much money out of the "sales" that they can actually stay open for months-years, so they had to limit the number of times per year you could do it

[Victoria J]

The UK legal systems demands that anything advertised at a sale price must have been at the previous price for the six months prior to the occasion - or at least that's what I was taught back in my school days.

Rapscallion

The law changed in May 2008 from The Consumer Protection Act 1987 to The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, and there is now less protection. The original law still didn't go as far as your recollection though.

The act itself didn't set out the rules but was a way to enforce other guidance. The general rule was that items in the sale must have been marked at the higher price for 28 consecutive days in the previous six months before they are marked down. Chain stores were at least sometimes able to argue that meant at any location.

The new law doesn't allow for enforcement of the guidelines regarding sales prices - though it tightens rules in other areas.

This of course applies to England only.

Victoria J

[Rapscallion]

Oooh - cheers! This was back in the days of O levels, when exams were real exams, andI actually had some hair.

I'll get browsing the links later.

Rapscallion

[Kiwi]

There is a budget store in NZ called Postie Plus, its like a cheap zellers or walmart but only sells clothes (child's and womens ) and make up

they have a "clearance" rack at all times but with bright orange stickers over the regular white price tags.... one time I noticed the regular price was $7.99 clearance price was $8.00. You could just see the white regular price peeking out from under the orange

I emailed their head office about it, I never got a reply but the next day I went in and looked for the same item, it was there but someone had literally ripped the tags with the old price tag OFF the item and had plastered it in orange clearance stickers for $8.00 still. I emailed the head office that night and let them know that I would be passing on this story as many times as I could and also that I wouldn't be shopping there again because if they thought that was an okay policy then lord knows what other deceptive things they let happen in their stores.

Never got so much as an email back.

[Victoria J]

Oooh - cheers! This was back in the days of O levels, when exams were real exams, andI actually had some hair.

That may have been true then. I wouldn't know

(sorry, but thanks for making me feel young. It doesn't happen often these days).

I'll get browsing the links later.

Probably not worth it. IANAL - but I'm working on it, and I still find that pretty dull. This Is Money was quite informative and readable, I'm just trained to give authoritive sources

The change in the law is kind of interesting given how low profile it is though. They'll be plenty out there thinking they've got rights they don't have and not just the normal loons.

Victoria J