Danny True
Last April I wrote about deceptive or tricky advertising (“It’s FREE – “) and that brings up another interesting question — regarding inflated prices.
In the previous article I referred to ads that offered to “ – - – double your order for free – - -“. If they can double your order for free, obviously they are making money on that offer (even discounting the “extra shipping and handling” charges that they impose on you)!
Several of the fast-food shops are doing something similar. One of them (the one with the arches) started selling their “no frills” (no lettuce or 
tomato) double cheeseburger for a buck. Their closest competitor started selling their comparable cheeseburger also at $1. Prior to this “competition” those same burgers were around $2 at both places.
Checking with a shift manager at a local shop (the one where they wear a “crown”) I learned that they are selling many more of these “specials” per day than before the price reduction. Since that store is just one of a National chain, and virtually all their stores are featuring that same special, it would be easy to suppose that they are selling multi-millions of those daily!
Even with the competition between those food shops, they are still making some profit on each sale!
With automobile sales lots it is presumed that “manufacturer’s suggested retail prices” are marked up significantly so that the sales department has some “discounting” flexibility in offering a car for sale. I get aggravated when they perform their “song and dance” routine of making an offer and then taking your counter-offer to “the Sales Manager” – usually multiple times – before they finally agree, after an hour or so, on the price you offered in the beginning! I have even had Sales Managers to run out to my old car as I am driving off, to finally accept MY offer! And, even at that, they are making money.
If canned tomatoes have a price increase, you can be sure that your local grocery store will mark up their present inventory that they’ve had on the shelf for a year with the new price even though they bought it before the price increase!
I know that sales negotiations have been a fact of life forever, even from way back in “Bible times”. But, wouldn’t it be refreshing if the merchants (car dealers, burger places, “sham wow”, etc.) would put a “fair” price on an item, make a little money and yet, be honest? If a burger shop can make money by selling their cheeseburger for a dollar, why gouge the customer for double the price?
When I lived in a small town in East Tennessee, I went to my local car dealer and tried to negotiate for a new car. They wouldn’t budge from the “MSRP”; they held out hopefully for the full profit from a sale. For that reason they sold about 10-12 new cars a month. So, I went to the nearest larger city and their (same brand) car dealer. They priced the identical car at a substantial discount. But they sold around 200-300 new cars per month and made “volume sales” money on each of those deals. The small town dealer went out of business a few years later!
Merchants need to understand that honesty and fairness is the best policy. Price increases have the “domino effect”; that is, when gas prices go up, that can of tomatoes will cost more, for it has to be transported to the grocery store in trucks whose drivers have to pay increased fuel prices, increased maintenance charges and so on.
I know that this WEB site has a large Internet presence (181 discrete nations in November, 2009), but this particular article is not limited to the United States. It is a world-wide dilemma and more than likely even worse in many other countries than in the USA!
Boy, the Ten Commandments ( see them HERE ) could really enforce morality (and cure this problem) if people (merchants) just supported them!
