Saturday, June 30, 2007

Discounts




One thing that stands out in our good old daily news paper is the amount of advertisements. Agreed, the revenue from ads supplement the low cost of newspapers. How else could an all colour edition with seemingly endless pages reach our door steps at 6.30 am for just three rupees? In some cities the price war has pegged the cunsumer cost of a good quality paper (colour sheets, remember!) at just Re.1. Amazing to see what competition does for the consumer.


But, the ads about discounted prices are the most prominent ones. One full sheet dedicated to one 'superlative-Mega/Big/Super/ Jumbo- Bazar' or the other is quite common. On Saturdays and Sundays, entire four pages are dedicated to one advertiser.



The one proclaiming 'Everything below MRP' takes the cake and gives item wise MRP vs what is the savings on each item!. There are others which encourage purchase of a set of goods to be eligible for further discounts. There are also these enticing teasers 'Buy 2 get 1 free' which scream for attention and of course further action.


Let's start spending more money to save more money!


Is this trend of publishing MRP and then creating a big noise about discounts a healthy one? Why fix a maximum retail price in the first place? Why don't they include all these benefits in terms of cost and reduce the retail price?


4 comments:

Shiva said...

A good observation. It shows how the retail market is picking up fast. Who knows! There is already a retail revolution with every big business getting into it.

Shiva said...

A good observation. It shows how the retail market is picking up fast. Who knows! There is already a retail revolution with every big business getting into it.

Shiva said...

A good observation. It shows how the retail market is picking up fast. Who knows! There is already a retail revolution with every big business getting into it.

Kumar said...

Shiva - You are right,what with the Ambanis and whoever is worth their salt jumping into the fray... Thanks for the visits...really encouraging :)