Target scams (aka “marketing”)

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Last night we needed to pick up a few items from Target. I choose to go to the “old” Target which is 2 miles from my house. We have a “new” Target about 1 mile away in the opposite direction. I find that very odd and disconcerting, but even weirder is that they don’t stock the same items. Despite being the bigger, better, newer Target the “new” one did not stock my husband’s shampoo and conditioner. So off to the “old” Target I went.

I picked up 2 other items on my list, spent some time perusing bedding (we need new sheets for our bed), and photo frames (I need 2 specific sizes for my new office area). Then I headed over to the beauty/health area.

I found the shampoo, and saw it had a red “Clearance” tag on the shelf. The bottles were marked as “Was: $13.99/ Now: $11.88″. I decided to get 2 sets of shampoo plus conditioner so I could use one of the $5 of $75 purchase I had. That would bring the price down to $10.63/bottle.

I paid, and arrived home and showed the hubby his goods. With a laugh, he broke the news to me that the normal price at Target for this product was $11.99! I don’t normally shop for his stuff so I didn’t know! (I keep a price book, but mainly I have an awesome memory for numbers so I know when something is on sale for a good price)

Essentially Target marked up the price so they could mark it down and it would look like a good buy. I saved a whooping 11¢!

This isn’t the first time I found a similar pricing structure at Target. Check out these photos from the ink aisle. The hilarious thing was there were DOZENS of these “As Advertised” or “Sale” prices in the ink aisle. In fact NONE of the items marked with the special signage were actually less expensive!

The ink I was shopping for (R:”As Advertised”, L: Price before “discount”)

Why didn’t they just make a sign that said “Pay $5 EXTRA this week only!”

p4080023

The moral of the story is to always know your prices, and remember that just because it’s marked as a sale item at your grocery store, Target, or Walmart (or wherever) doesn’t mean it is actually cheaper!

Have you ever encountered items like this while you were shopping? I now understand why according to Free Money Finance an “impulse buyer” spends 1/3 more than someone who shops by price!

Kelly

About Kelly

Kelly Whalen is the founder of The Centsible Life, a blog where motherhood and money meet. Her goal is to help readers live well on less. Kelly is a mom to 4, and loves that she can stay at home with her kids, and still pursue her passions for writing, personal finance, and social media. You can often find her on twitter and Facebook talking money and motherhood.

Tagged as: sales gimmicks, spending

http://kelliealexander.wordpress.com Kellie Alexander

wal mart has been doing a similar thing. i buy A LOT of diet coke, so I can tell you the best price per can generally. i noticed a few months ago that the diet coke and my toilet paper had signs that said “WAS ….”, but the funny thing was, I had never paid that price before EVER. In fact, it looked like the “old” price was higher than today's price. I saw this for what it was — a soft sell on the higher price — and stocked up. I was right. A couple of weeks later, the new price was the old “WAS …” price (which was really a new, higher price). Later, and this is to wal mart's credit, all the prices of my main buys there have been “rolled back”, so now i am actually paying much lower prices than they originally had.

i agree that you should know what your best price is on an item, but if i happen to get stuck for 20 or 30 cents, i try not to sweat it. it's a cheap lesson learned.

)
http://www.observingcasually.com/ Kosmo @ The Casual Observer

I honestly think they are just clueless. I see the strangest pricing at our local Target. At one point, the 120 count bottle of a med I was taking was CHEAPER than the 80 count – and these were the regular prices. I don’t mean less per pill, I literally mean that the 80 count bottle was ~$10 and the 120 count was $9. Exact same medicine, exact same brand, and it was something I bought somewhat frequently. Obviously, I’d buy the 120 count. Until they ran out for about 8 consecutive weeks (not exaggerating). Their excuse was that they had not control over what was on the truck. Nice … well, Wal-Mart had the same med.

Their toilet paper pricing is funny, too. Some times the 30 count has the best per unit price, sometimes the 12 count does, sometimes it’s in between.

They also (consistently) have a 64 pack of diapers at the same price as a 56? (I think – definitely in the 50s). The 64 comes in a box (with two bags inside) and the smaller comes in one package. Maybe some people don’t like boxes, but I’m not sure why people would buy the smaller package. When my wife recently noticed this, she asked that very question – and I didn’t have a good answer.

/rant

Kelly

Thanks for stopping by Kosmo!
I personally think that companies like Target are betting you don’t pay attention to pricing at all! I know when I have my kids with me it is harder to concentrate on the odd pricing. Trying to price paper products always give me a headache! Especially TP, sometimes the squares are different sizes so 1000 sheets from one manufacturer means something totally different from another!

I have seen the weird diaper pricing as well, it always makes me laugh!

http://www.observingcasually.com/ Kosmo @ The Casual Observer

I honestly think they are just clueless. I see the strangest pricing at our local Target. At one point, the 120 count bottle of a med I was taking was CHEAPER than the 80 count – and these were the regular prices. I don’t mean less per pill, I literally mean that the 80 count bottle was ~$10 and the 120 count was $9. Exact same medicine, exact same brand, and it was something I bought somewhat frequently. Obviously, I’d buy the 120 count. Until they ran out for about 8 consecutive weeks (not exaggerating). Their excuse was that they had not control over what was on the truck. Nice … well, Wal-Mart had the same med.

Their toilet paper pricing is funny, too. Some times the 30 count has the best per unit price, sometimes the 12 count does, sometimes it’s in between.

They also (consistently) have a 64 pack of diapers at the same price as a 56? (I think – definitely in the 50s). The 64 comes in a box (with two bags inside) and the smaller comes in one package. Maybe some people don’t like boxes, but I’m not sure why people would buy the smaller package. When my wife recently noticed this, she asked that very question – and I didn’t have a good answer.

/rant

Kate

Oh I will, I’ll have fun with that. Does he really think his hair looks better than mine? 12 times as good?

On topic, I have heard of the “marking up so we can mark it down” scam. A lot of super frugal divas advocate having a master price book for the stuff you buy. I think it’s a great idea but I have never been motivated/organized enough to do that!
Kate

Oh I will, I’ll have fun with that. Does he really think his hair looks better than mine? 12 times as good?

On topic, I have heard of the “marking up so we can mark it down” scam. A lot of super frugal divas advocate having a master price book for the stuff you buy. I think it’s a great idea but I have never been motivated/organized enough to do that!
Kate

12 dollars for shampoo??? I’m flabbergasted! White Rain, 99 cents, and gets a good rating at http://www.beautypedia.com

Kelly

Kate, meet Bob my fancy husband. He spends more on “beauty” products than I do!
You can talk to him about it next time we see you.

Kate

12 dollars for shampoo??? I’m flabbergasted! White Rain, 99 cents, and gets a good rating at http://www.beautypedia.com

Courtney

I am close to three Targets and they all have different prices on the same items so it gets really confusing… I have never seen that “as-advertised” being more than the actual prices though. That is laughable and hopefully will be brought to their attention!

Kelly

That is odd! I wonder if it’s due to the different locations? Is one in a “nicer” area than the others, etc?
You definitely need a price book if you don’t have one!

http://www.flyawayfamily.com/ MB

So wrong. I am in the midst of building my price book. I think it will save me tons once I’m finished and can properly research where to buy what.

Kelly

MB, it will definitely save you money!
I will caution you not to comparison shop for paper towels and TP though, the math on those 2 items is mind boggling to me!

MB

So wrong. I am in the midst of building my price book. I think it will save me tons once I’m finished and can properly research where to buy what.

http://imomzone.com midlifemom

I have also noticed that my Target is putting ‘clearance’ stickers on items only marked down 10%. This is a huge change from even 6 months ago when ‘clearance’ items was at least 50% off. I run into my 2 Targets about once a week just to do a clearance end cap check. (I know where they all are so it goes quickly, if I don’t have other shopping to do). I rarely buy any non-food items unless it is at least 50% off. Like me, I think people are getting wise and letting items sit on the shelf until they really go on sale.

Kelly

That’s a great idea to do an end cap check. I usually do it when I’m there, but should really try to do it once a week. I generally think that Target is cheaper for most items, but I have to make sure to double check my prices now!

http://imomzone.com/ midlifemom

I have also noticed that my Target is putting ‘clearance’ stickers on items only marked down 10%. This is a huge change from even 6 months ago when ‘clearance’ items was at least 50% off. I run into my 2 Targets about once a week just to do a clearance end cap check. (I know where they all are so it goes quickly, if I don’t have other shopping to do). I rarely buy any non-food items unless it is at least 50% off. Like me, I think people are getting wise and letting items sit on the shelf until they really go on sale.