We are all conditioned to look for sale signs and marketers know that. That’s why everything always seems to be on sale.
But sometimes, the savings offered are a joke. Here is our slightly-belated April Fools list of real sales with bogus savings.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Wow… what a price reduction!
Big sale at Sears… don’t miss it!
Save a whole penny on clearance! [Thanks, K.T.]
Buy more, save zero! [Thanks, B.D.]
The price reduction on the house is pretty good since it includes the percentage – 0% savings!
I just paid half a million bucks for a tract house with a single car garage on a sliver of land? Barkeep, Hemlock! Make it a double.
I remember needing 4 batteries at some retail store I don’t remember, and seeing that the 4-pack was 3 times the price of the 3-pack of the same brand same type of battery. They both claimed to be on sale from some even higher (but more logical) price. I asked the salesperson about it and he couldn’t answer the question, so I just bought 2 2-packs.
At least it was easy to do the math unlike just about every time I have to buy bottled water having to figure out whether the 36-pack of .5 liter bottles is a better deal than the 3-pack of 1 gallon ones. Supermarkets usually have per unit prices shown (if you’re really lucky, it’s the same unit). Pharmacies and convenience stores not so much.
At least there’s no mouse print! You know right up front.
Walmart does this all the time. They put clearance items on endcaps with big yellow stickers to make you think it’s marked down but when you get to the register it rings up at regular price. WTF?
Holes in menu’s are fun. I stop at a local BK a few times a week and you can buy three French Toast sticks for a $1 or five for $2.49.
Several years back my Stop & Shop had been selling 1 liter flavored sparkling waters at 2/$1 as the regular price, but one week offered a sale price of 3/$2. I wish I’d taken a picture of that. Thankfully they were the regular price at the register, but I did spend a lot of time in that aisle staring at the shelf in confusion. And it happened over the summer, so it couldn’t have been an April Fool’s Day prank.