Never Pay Full Retail Price

The retail market these days, both online and at your traditional walk-in stores, is extremely competitive and for this reason you should never pay retail. Most retailers will go that extra mile to earn more sales. And I am going to give you a few tips on how to never pay full retail again.

I wrote this article when I noticed that US retailers in 2010 had begun the “Black Friday creep” – Black Friday deals had started earlier than usual that year, beginning in the last week of October! Sort of like Christmas sales beginning earlier and earlier every year! Regardless, what I am going to talk about in this article - about never paying the full retail price - applies to any store at any time of the year!

As you are aware, most retailers have priced in a certain percentage of profit on all their products. For this reason they have some leeway so that they can offer the sales deals that they do. Of course, some products that are on sale (lost leaders, I think they call them), the retailers will actually lose money on them because they are so heavily discounted. Usually these highly discounted sale items are usually in limited supply and are only meant to get you in the store! Retailers will make up for those losses when you purchase other products when you are at the store, at least they hope so!

Getting back to the idea of not paying retail… This works at most of your big box or larger retail stores. This is what I do when I go shopping for an item, especially on electronics or bigger ticket items. I like to check the internet for stores in my area to see prices on particular products. There’s a lot of pricing comparison websites, but I find they are not very good as they may not contain the most up-to-date information. The best thing is to focus on a few stores that you know offer good deals. Check their prices on the web. When you find the lowest price on a particular item and it is exactly like the one you wish to purchase, print out that page for that item on the day you are going shopping. The website address will always show on the print out along with the store name.  I usually do this when I wish to shop for items, I really need it and it is along my way. This way pricing is relevant because some stores on the net change their pricing often.

You can also use the same approach by checking competing store fliers that are delivered to your door weekly.

After you have done your research, go with this information to the store and mention the price of their competitor and indicate that you will purchase the item at their store if they meet or beat the lower price. Most stores will do this. A sale with a smaller profit is better than no sale at all!

You can probably also try it at online stores that have a live customer rep available, but I have never done this. This is especially true if the store offers free shipping (like Amazon) and you want to buy it from there!