Hello everyone.
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything (sorry). Today we are going to look at smart buys. My question is this when you go to buy an item that is 50% off is this really a good buy or just a way to get us in there store? I used to work at a stereo store and they used this trick all the time. What they did is raise the prices up to full retail price, and then they would mark those 50% off. Many times the price you paid was close to the original price or just a couple of dollars off. That got us to buy something we truly didn’t need and spend money that we could have saved or used to pay extra on some debt.
One of my favorite stores is JC Penny’s. We get coupons every week promoting a new sale. After a purchase the receipt shows how much you saved by shopping at their store. I always wondered if they would just price things at the sale price all the time, wouldn’t sales go up? I just don’t know. To make my point even more, I bought some new Golf Balls. I wanted a certain kind so I went looking on-line for them. I found them for a pretty good price, but when I went to “check out” there was a notice that I could buy 2 boxes for only $5 dollars more. So I could buy 12 for $15 or buy 24 for $20. So I did it, but to tell the truth I really don’t need any Golf Balls because I have a whole bunch of them down stairs. So I wonder if this was a good buy or not?
The course I golf at has a deal if you show up before they open you can golf for $7 per nine holes. If you wait until the person shows up and opens the club house it is $13.50 for the same 9 holes. It’s kind of early to get up, but the money I save I can golf twice as much for the price as going after they open. Plus since they’re not open I take water with me or Gatorade which has been on sale lately. So I save more money because I don’t buy from the club house where everything is twice the price.
One more thing to remember a lot of times we see sales where you have to buy 10 boxes of something and we get a sweet deal. Many times I’ve checked this out up front and ask if the deal is if you buy 10 or does the sale work if you buy 3 or 4. If you’re not careful many times you will end up with 10 items and you won’t use them up very fast. So it’s very important to make sure they last as long as it will take to use them up.
As for my business it’s moving very slow (very slow). I can’t give up now. Edison tried to make a light bulb and it took many, many times before he got it to work.
So I leave you a story I love. This young boy is out behind his house with a bat and ball. He throws the ball up in the air and swings, he misses it. All the time saying out load he was the greatest batter in the whole world. After three tries of missing the ball he looks up and says I guess I’m the greatest pitcher in the world. So remember to never give up and always fight the fights you can win, don’t waste your time fighting the ones that just don’t matter.