Modern sales are now "was $25, now $2", then sale ends and the price is $3.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
760 points (99.2% liked)
Comic Strips
14298 readers
4986 users here now
Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
The rules are simple:
- The post can be a single image, an image gallery, or a link to a specific comic hosted on another site (the author's website, for instance).
- The comic must be a complete story.
- If it is an external link, it must be to a specific story, not to the root of the site.
- You may post comics from others or your own.
- If you are posting a comic of your own, a maximum of one per week is allowed (I know, your comics are great, but this rule helps avoid spam).
- The comic can be in any language, but if it's not in English, OP must include an English translation in the post's 'body' field (note: you don't need to select a specific language when posting a comic).
- Politeness.
- Adult content is not allowed. This community aims to be fun for people of all ages.
Web of links
- [email protected]: "I use Arch btw"
- [email protected]: memes (you don't say!)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Lenovo be like
Fun fact, it's illegal to say something is on sale when it isn't lower than their normal price, so they'll use weasel words you can watch out for.
"Compare to", "originally", "Hot Deal", "Special Buy", "[Insert holiday] special", etc.
Illegal where? I doubt that's a federal law in the US.
I doubt that's a regulated federal law in the US.
About as useful as our warranty laws
It is. Here's the link to the rules on deeptive pricing in the Code of Federal Regulations.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-233
going off memory, I believe it depends on region, but yes federally I don't think it cares as long as the price is correctly shown and the "was price" is not higher than it had ever been listed as
Wait, "hot deal" and "originally" get around this?? How literally is that law worded?? "Hot deal" is definitely just a synonym but "originally" is even more explicitly a lie than "on sale"!
"Originally" just means it used to be that price. at some point, not that it's still the regular price.
That's something that might be used on an older model laptop or cell phone.
"Hot Deal" can me something that's considered valuable even at regular price. The Black Friday products that are produced specifically to be cheap for Black Friday can fall into this category. I worked at a retailer that had $10 blue jeans shipped in just for that sale every year, so $10 was their regular price even though they were a "good value".
There's a famous case study where JC Penny launched a big campaign where they wouldn't put people thought the rat race of sales and coupons and just offer the best price at all times. Almost bankrupted them. Turns out people want the rat race.
People don't want the rat race anymore than we want to pay exorbitant prices for healthcare or housing or food. But making customers happy isn't as profitable.
Think about it. If everything was always available at the cheapest possible price, what would your shopping habits look like? You would buy things exactly when you need them. If you have to deal with higher normal prices and occasional sales, then you need to plan ahead and buy when things are cheap instead of when you need them. That means buying more stuff than you need because you didn't plan adequately and got stuff that you never ended up needing.
People want to feel like they got a good deal. Making them do a little bit of work or seeing that marked down sign gives them that feeling.
I wish this was true anymore, but I was the the grocery store today looking at how the 6-pack ramen noodles are now $2.56. I can remember when they were a quarter. Not a quarter of 2.50, but just 25 cents.
$.16 when I was in college. That's $.42 in 2025 money, so same price with inflation (from 1989).
I mean, that's fair, I figured it was probably close to inflation adjusted, but it's still absolutely mad to see. I'm finally beginning to understand why my boomer dad would go around having a fucking stroke at all the prices in 2007; I think at some level, your frame of reference for what something costs gets stuck in whatever it was in your teens and early 20s.
I feel like it would have been better if they raised the price to $2 during the sale
I've never seen a furniture store that wasn't having a gigantic "sale".
There's a furniture store in my city that's had a going out of business sale for the last 25 years.
LAST DAY OPEN!
the next day
LAST DAY! WE MEAN IT THIS TIME!
All businesses are going out of business, it's just a matter of how long it will take
Ikea?
This is literally the Khol’s business model
Man fuck that place. I got my all time fav sport coat there out of shit luck, never bought anything else. Even got their CC, never used.
Every "Black Friday" sale ever
(Also: when did "Black Friday" last from November to January? 🤔)
For sales on Amazon you can check the price history on Keepa. They have a browser extension but avoid it, it's problematic privacy wise.
While supplies last. Going out of business, final sale
If you buy 2 you save twice as much. 😋
dude I just earned $96 by buying four
Haha you got those suckers good! 🤣
I know so many people who regularly fall for this sort of thing, even when they know it's not actually a deal or something they need.
Final panel, on the money
Crypto: