Quote:
Originally Posted by kacir
Things are different.
Here, in my little town there are quite a few competing chains, so all year round they issue sale of the week. Every week you receive a flyer with current discounts. Sometimes you come to shop to buy something from the flyer and they tell you "we only received two pieces and they were bought out 30 seconds after we opened". In such case I leave the shop without buying *anything* else. Even if that means I have to go elsewhere to buy milk or bread or whatever. I wish more people did so. Another lovely practice is that you buy something discounted and at home you find out that on the bill there is full price. You ALWAYS have to check whether the discounted price you see next to the goods is the one they bill you.
Some enterprising soul has set up site where all info about all discount flyers in town is aggregated, so when I run out of something that I buy in bulk, I can look up where to go to buy it.
Of course, with globalization we also see seasonal discounts, but not in such scale as in USA.
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Different indeed.
Ouch.
The practices you described were outlawed decades ago round these parts and most states have well-publicized mechanisms to oversee and enforce consumer protection, especially on sales. Which isn't to say that abuses don't happen but savvy consumers know they don't have to take it.
On limited quantity sales, stores have to pre-advertise the minimum stock per store (and make sure employees don't buy all of it) or offer rain-checks on demand to all comers.
Bait-and-switch is not tolerated; ads and signs must specify the stock number of the item and be honored. Substitutions may only be made with equal or better products.
These protections haven't come easy; they're not the gift of an all-wise paternalistic government, but rather the result of decades of battles between businesses and consumers unwilling to just put up with it. Of prodding government at all levels *and* voting with the wallet. Both. Politicians are easily bought but educated consumers aren't. Not without big discounts.
Personal experience: last month, KMart had a set of patio furniture on sale, 4 chairs with cushions, table with tempered glass top. Great deal. I missed it. When I did find out, the following week, they had a display unit at the entrance with the sale sign posted (which clearly stated the expiration date, BTW). Pointing to the display, they promptly removed the sign and honored the price which was 40% lower than the current price posted in the garden furniture dept. Somebody probably had to explain to the store manager why the sign was still there 5 days after expiring.
The US is a very competitive retail environment and most states are very business-friendly, which reduces the overhead and operating costs, with most of the savings filtering through to consumers. At the same time, 50 years after Nader made consumer advocacy a career, businesses know there are very real constraints on their practices and there are lines they cross (some still do) at their peril. Some businesses still haven't quite accepted that power has shifted towards consumers (the price-fix six big publishing houses, for one) but most have successfully adapted to the new market dynamics.
Consider the following example from the HDTV world:
For the 2011 model Sony and Samsung, among others "coincidentally" decided to require retailers to limit advertised discounts to 10%:
http://hdguru.com/hdtv-makers-to-dea...629/#more-4629
Sales dropped.
And stayed down for months.
So much for *that* scheme:
http://hdguru.com/best-buy-finally-b...685/#more-4685
There was no boycott, no organized hue-and-cry; just consumers being consumers.
It took a few months but in the end, supply and demand won out.
(Maybe the vendors will get the message; maybe they'll try again. Panasonic's being trying to stamp out discounting since the last century, to no avail.)
Consumers *expect* weekly sales and *big* holiday discounts from retailers:
http://hdguru.com/hot-memorial-day-h...750/#more-4750
Without them they'll wait or go elsewhere.
Vendors that don't follow the playbook end up surrendering sales and customers to the competition. And, as many businesses have discovered (most recently prominent, BORDERS), in competitive markets losing sales may be survivable but losing customers isn't.
Now, I've no special insight into Pocketbook's strategy, but I would hazard a guess that after a week of big pricing news from Kobo, B&N, and Amazon, the loss of revenue from a few days' sales might be worth it to them to raise their new product's visibility a bit in the largest and most competitive market.
Just a guess, mind you.