Who Controls the Game?
Nov 8th, 2010 by phoebe2
After reading Kimberley Chung’s post “Buy One Get One Free,” I had a few thoughts in mind.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/kimberleychung/2010/11/07/buy-one-get-one-free/
There are always different kinds of promotions going on almost all the time, and this phenomenon becomes more obvious now as the biggest holiday, Christmas is coming in about a month. When you walk into malls, individual retailer stores, and dollar stores, you can often see signs or posters announcing a big SALE going on. Some of the popular ones include “Buy One Get the Other One Free,” “Everything is 30% off of the original price,” and “Any Purchase Above $500 will receive a gift card valued at least $100.” I admit that these kinds of promotions are really attractive, but I sometimes think if the sellers are being honest.
The reason why I doubt the sincerity of sellers launching a sale is because of my personal experience of working at a home decor store. I was a part-time sales associate at a home decor store, and right before the store launched its annual Christmas sale, the manager asked us to change ALL the price tag on our merchandises…..I felt so shocking as I did not know such thing would ever happen. My experience somehow corresponds to one of the topic our textbook covers-the ethics of marketing. I remember reading one paragraph conveying how “bait-and-switch” works, and I think similar exercises should be avoided to ensure fairness in the market.