by timetrax23
Busted: Linen’s N Things Liquidation Prices Actually Higher Than Original [Videos]:
[Via Consumerist]
A Good Morning America hidden camera investigation found that if you peel back the label on the “sale” items at Linen’s N Things, you’ll find the old label underneath, with a cheaper price. How do they get away with saying “10-20% off sale” then?
First raise the price, then take the discount off the inflated price. Calphalon saucepan was on sale for $124.99, but the label underneath was for $109.99. Rachael Ray cookware, $199 on top, $179 on bottom. Curtain scarf $39.99, old price $27.99. And at Circuit City, it was the same story. It’s less about actual deals, and more about manipulating buyer behavior. The only thing getting liquidated at a liquidation sale is your wallet.
This is an interesting truth about liquidations – Linens and Things are no longer the owners of their merchandise. The liquidators are and their goal is to raise as much money as possible. So if they can get you to pay more than before, fine.
I found the ABC article interesting. Since we will see more liquidation sales as time goes on, we would be smart to remember them.
“Contrary to popular belief, liquidation sales aren’t a great deal for the consumer,” said retail industry analyst Stephen Baker of the NPD Group. “The liquidator is there to make money.”
[...]
Despite what the public might think, Baker said liquidators rarely sell merchandise at a loss, even near the end of the sale. He said there are other ways to sell it off, like to overseas markets hungry for merchandise. So rather than trying to empty a store to the bare walls, Baker explained that going-out-of-business sales are more of a play upon human psychology.
It appears that the best time to find deals is right before the companies a go out of business and liquidate. The liquidators even say this, explaining that the stores want to be competitive and mark their prices aggressively before they sell the assets and go out of business.
Technorati Tags: Economy, General
Neuroscientist William Fishbein says that deep, “slow-wave” sleep can help us commit information to memory, learn new skills, and extrapolate information. Science news site Physorg reports that Fishbein and a graduate student studied English-speaking students’ ability to remember Chinese characters they were taught just before a nap (and some without a nap):
