It's something about human nature. Wave the term "sale" under people's noses and they are so enthralled they lose all sanity. A guy who used to work for me got a call from his wife the one day. He hung up the phone and got the funniest look on his face. He came over to me and said it just hit him what his wife said. They had been to a local store and saw a torchier lamp they liked (when they were in style) and wanted to get. It was "on sale" for $69.00. OK. Jim had stopped at Kmart for something and saw the identical lamp (same mfgr and model number) for $29.99. He told his wife and her response? No way. Why? "But that one's not on sale! He shook his head. And we have had a lot of laughs about it. Sad thing is she was dead serious.

@dd50, that's not true. I have a receipt for a Sonic Scrubber I purchased there on 10/11/8 - full price was 14.99 but I had a coupon so got $3 off. I also purchased the additional package of brushes - regular price was 9.99. On 10/23/08, I purchased another Sonic Scrubber and set of additional brushes. The receipt shows the Sonic Scrubber at a regular price of 14.99 minus the $1.50 discount. The brushes show the regular price at 9.99 with a $1 discount.

You remember the reasons given for it being essential to let the market decide which is the best way to go? That competition will ensure that everyone offers the products and services that people desire ... they claim. And it's partly true ... the corporations love competition ... among their suppliers. That way, the big guys can dictate to each supplier what they're willing to pay: take it or leave it. If they're big enough, many suppliers will take it ... until they are near bankrupt. They love competition among their customers: if there are only a few, they have too much negotiating power ... there is more or less a level playing field. But ... they hate it on their own level. Remember how we had a lot of little (granted, inefficient) dairies? The locally dominant dairy'd come in and offer the little guy about half what his business was worth. If he refused, they'd undercut his prices till he could no longer survive. Then the big guys came along and ate the middle-sized ones. When you have half a dozen players doing 80% of the business, do you figure that there's much competition? We have a small number of gasoline suppliers in Canada. When there's a price rise ... four local stores all put up their price to the same amount ... at the same time. After many complaints were heard, the government carried out several evaluations, over the years. They all came up with the conclusion that, yes, there is competition in the petroleum business. And all is well. As communism fell in Russia, many very large businesses and agencies were sold off to certain well-placed individuals or small groups. So they start off with heavy centralization, from the start. The same is going on in China as they gear up for participation in the market eceonomy - many very large companies are being set afloat. A number of them with close association to the Chinese government ... or the army. So theirs is to be a mature, over-centralized, economy from the start. We talk a lot about "freedom" and "democracy" ... which we mean to be operational in the political, and substantially in the social, realm. But a measure of "economic democracy" that some of us feel to be a worthwhile way to fly, doesn't get much consideration. Corporations run by the golden rule: he wot has the gold ... makes the rules. Good wishes for wise management of your life and assets. ole joyful

Snookums, I found that same tactic was happening when Mervyns went out of business. Everything was brought up to the regular retail price, then marked down 20%. What was so ridiculous is that the weekly ad from 2 weeks earlier had the stuff on sale for less than half the marked down price! The store was mobbed, but no one was buying, and everyone was complaining. Eventually they marked things down a bit more, but it was mostly junky stuff...the good, brand name things never were marked down. For example, Levi's were never discounted. I don't know what they did with the extra stock, probably sold it to a liquidator or even donated it to charity. Whatever they did, the going out of business 'clearance' was a joke. Only one Oregon LnT...and that mall has had a lot of closures lately. The one by me is business as usual.