Food for thought

I read a very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal (online) called "Many Discounts, Few Deals" (December 15, 2010). In it, there's a statement by Robert Schindler, who's a professor of marketing at Rutgers University - Camden's school of business. He said (or wrote, who knows which): "Perhaps one of the most serious socially irresponsible things marketers do is discounts. Marketers are playing on our weakness, to our detriment." In the article, it talked about how retailers are encouraging consumers to buy in bulk through BOGO deals and things like that so that the consumers feel like they're getting a great deal and buy more than the need. But what I found so interesting in the above quote is that he says that what the retailers are doing it "socially irresponsible" and manipulative, which I suppose is true but it's still interesting because it turns the table on the idea of discounts. Companies want us to believe that the discounts and mostly for our benefit, that the companies are getting less revenue so that we, the consumers, can benefit and save money. Granted, we all know that that's not the full truth because otherwise companies like Wal-Mart wouldn't be rolling in money. But I'd never thought of it as "socially irresponsible" before, but I guess it would be for a lot of people. I generally see through these tricks and think: No, I don't need to buy more. Yes, I'll save $30 if I buy $100 dollars worth of stuff, but I only need this one $30 thing and no I will not go looking for $70 dollars worth of something just to gain $30 back because I'm still $40 in the hole (so to speak)." Not everyone might do that though. I was shopping with someone recently at Macy's where all of the sweaters were @24.99 (sneaky way of saying $25. Don't fall prey to it. always round up), which was "so cheap!" so she must have bought 5 or so. I highly doubt that she would normally buy like $125 worth of sweaters unless she had absolutely no sweaters in her closet (which is doubtful), but a sale encourages you to buy even more! I try to always be conscious to these kinds of things, but I'm a shopper from way back so they get me from time to time. Anyways, it's late this season for shopping advice, but DON'T FALL PREY TO DISCOUNTS!!! At least until the Day after Christmas (which is, of course, the day that you buy all of the things that you wanted for Christmas but didn't get and use all of those Christmas gift cars & money =D ) MERRY SHOPPING!