27 December 2013

How retailers are ripping you off

I have just spent the last half day with my girlfriend. We had lunch and afterwards she dragged me to go shopping because it is the day after Boxing Day and therefore there were still many products with huge discounts, e.g. 50% off. I am wary of these percentage discounts because a product that is $200 with a 50% discount is still a rip off if the market value of the product is, say, only $10.

To prove my point, I walked around and found a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini selling for about $400. It has had 40% off to bring the price down to $400. This is supposedly good because normally the price is higher. However, I whipped out my smartphone, did a Google search, and found the exact phone for sale from Kogan for only $350. Even with the 40% discount, the product was overpriced.

The lesson here is that a percentage discount means nothing. You should do a Google search of anything before you buy it.

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