Double discounts! What does it mean?

[retailsweetie]

So currently my whole store is 40% off. Pretty sweet deal, right? Well, the clearance items (items with a red slash on the price tag) are an additional 40% off. That's pretty amazing, in my opinion. (I sold a jacket for $1.84 after tax, you really can't beat that.)

Most people are excited when they find that out, and those that don't understand usually ask for clarification. Which is super. But then we get the silly people who utter the following...

"40% and then another 40%? So that's like 80%, right?"



I may not be the most mathematically inclined, but even I know that's not how it works. This is when I correct them and tell them it's actually more like 60%, which is still a pretty awesome deal. Then I pull out a calculator and tell them what it'll be after the discounts.

[emax4]

It makes sense that the customers ask this because there have been store deals where they stack deals instead of giving a certain percentage off, coming up with a total, and then giving another percentage off of that new total, and then totalling up again. I can't see an 80% offer like that unless it was clearance stuff, but at least those customers have the sense to ask first. If it sounds too good to be true...

[BeenThereDoneThat]

It's a good thing it's not a 50% off sale...they'd be running out the door with the clearance stuff thinking it was free...

[xaenon]

I may not be the most mathematically inclined, but even I know that's not how it works. This is when I correct them and tell them it's actually more like 60%, which is still a pretty awesome deal. Then I pull out a calculator and tell them what it'll be after the discounts.

I gotta say, in their defense, that percentages and fractions are difficult for a lot of folks for some reason. Most folks understand that forty percent of $10 is $4, but when combining percentages, it seems that most people I know assume that it's straight addition (ie, the 40 + 40 = 80 percent logic you mentioned).

Just sayin'.

[Sleepwalker]

Sometimes it IS straight addition. It all depends on the fine print.

[Greenday]

Sometimes it IS straight addition. It all depends on the fine print.

Pretty much this.

And with the method from the OP, it works out to be 64% or something like that which is a damned good deal anyway.