With the retail season in full swing, I'm always fascinated by the various sales and promotions that retailers offer at this time of the year. Since starting this blog and reading other fashion/shopping blogs and forums, I've gained a much better understanding of why retailers do the things they do, like free shipping offers w/minimums, etc. Despite my understanding (and sometimes frustration) with the various "games" our favorite retailers like to play, there are some things that I will NEVER understand.
Take for instance this sweater from Banana Republic.
I recently purchased this exact sweater in-store at Banana Republic. The full price for the sweater was $79.50, but I took advantage of a 30% off promotion they were running at the time. To be perfectly honest, I never would have bought this sweater at full price. It was the 30% off that made the price tag a little more palatable for my taste.
Well, imagine my surprise when I found the same exact sweater listed on Banana Republic's website at full retail price of $98. WHAT?!?! Same style number, same color, same everything, except for the price tag. Now, I can understand a
slight price difference between online and brick & mortar, and I can understand why stores sometimes run a sale only online, or only in-store, but an almost $20 price difference in the original listed price of the exact same item just seems absurd. If anyone can explain this marketing phenomenon to me, then please explain!!
As proof I'm not total crazy-pants, I took a photo of the tag from the sweater I purchased. Although it looks darker in the photo, it really is true to the lighter gray color seen in the stock image above. Thankfully I was on the lesser end of the crazy price gouging, but if any of you happened to buy the same sweater online, hopefully you can get a price adjustment!
how crazy is that!? I really don't understand why stores do that, it makes absolutely no sense to me.
ReplyDeleteYep, it's happened to me with J.Crew. I got a blazer in store one time and then realized it was more expensive online. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteJessica: It doesn't make sense to me either.
ReplyDeleteRosa: I've heard about that happening at Jcrew. There must be some secret to the madness, but I sure don't know what it is!
Wow -- that is absolutely insane. It's one thing for the sale prices to be a little different between online and in store -- sure, I understand that certain BM locations may need to reduce their prices even further in order to move merchandise. But charging almost $20 more...on the original retail price??? That's just ridiculous.
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