Thread: Survey - Opinions on "Suggested Retail Price"

Tweet

Hi Everyone,

I am feeling a little irked by something and wanted to take an opinion pole to see if it's just me. When you visit a Halloween (or otherwise) retail website and they post the "suggested retail price" or the "list price" and then show their own price... do you believe you are really getting a discount? Or do you feel like they are a total ripoff when their final price is still higher than many other retailers?

I see this over and over again when I poke around to see what the competition is up to. I have yet to see any true discounted prices, unless the item is actually on sale. 90% of manufacturers don't provide us with a suggested retail price, so retailers are just pulling these numbers out of thin air (or someplace else) and making themselves out to be the good guys offering you big savings. I have never done this because I give the general public more credit than that and I wouldn't want to portray something that isn't true.

But the fact that a ton of online retailers do this, may mean that people do fall for it and don't bother to comparison shop. So... how do you feel when you see this tactic? Do you assume the retailer is telling the truth and saving you money, or do you just ignore those numbers and still compare bottom line to bottom line?

I really ignore the numbers and don't trust the retailers who give the inflated numbers to begin with.

I really love your site and I have purchased from you each of the last few years and have always had reliable, fast service and great prices. I have been very, very pleased with your site and have highly recommended it to many of my friends. Word of mouth via the internet is more valuable than inflated suggested retail prices.

Perhaps it would be nice to get a loyalty discount though.

I compare prices to others on the internet, and also check what the shipping price is. However, I also google and find what their "customer service" reputation is with people who have placed an order. If customer service is bad, I will pay extra for the company who actually cares about their customer.

A loyalty discount is not a bad idea. I actually really like that. We offer discounts at various times throughout the year during sales, but I'm not sure off the top of my head how to implement a loyal customer discount. I'm thinking a membership card of some sort? Hmmm. Any suggestions or ideas we can kick around? Ease of setup and monitoring would be a plus. I suppose we could just issue a discount code to everyone who places an order so they get savings on a return visit. I am open to suggestions.

The only price I really pay attention to is the price you'd have to pay for something. After all I either have the money to pay for it or not. Every store has costs associated with it (brick and mortar or online) and I understand that businesses need to adjust pricing to cover the product, their overhead and some profit, otherwise why be in business.

I'm okay with people making some money off the product so usually look at cost to me (shipping, customer service, independent feedback and product availability factored in). I also don't like to buy from a lot of stores and give my information out to places I don't really know; so sometimes something like Paypal is nice when dealing with the unknown seller. Heck even when you know a company, stuff can even happen to you. I think twice now my family has received letters from their credit card company about info being "stolen" from very reputable stores--we live in California so thankfully we get to find out when this kind of stuff happens, unlike other states where they don't require notification. When I'm buying online from an unknown who doesn't use Paypal, I prefer ordering by phone other than online, although I like getting an email confirmation and the ability to track the shipment.

I "get" customer appreciation discounts and understand the thought behind them. It's great when you frequent a store but leaves you feeling like you are still paying more than others when you don't so I kind of don't like the two-tier pricing structure some places offer. I hate grocery stores that use those cards to give you a store discount and to track purchases and we actually seldom shop at them as a result. Like I said I don't like knowing I'm paying a higher price than someone else for the same product, just because they are willing to be tracked and I choose not to.

There are a handful of places I do like shopping at. I like their product selection, ease of seeing all the products when I'm just wanting to see what they have (surprising how many companies make this so difficult, making you jump through so many screens just to get a good overview), I will sometimes take advantage of a clearance or sale area but will buy "full" price mdse too from them. I like tracking shipments as I said, I like adequately packed products, options for payment and reasonable customer service when something goes wrong or you have a question.

I've kind of gone all over the place in commenting but essentially, no, I don't really pay attention to Suggested Retail Price.

Spookie, you make a good point. We offer fair prices year-round, we ship orders out the same day we get them (by a cut off time in the afternoon of course), we only sell what we have in stock and available to go out that day - no backorders, we take all major credit cards and Paypal, etc., etc. If we had inflated prices to begin with, offering a membership type discount would make sense, because then almost everyone would be getting that discounted price - which would really be equal to a standard everyday price without memberships.

I guess I just get annoyed when I know what the wholesale cost of an item is and I see other websites saying the "suggested" retail price is 4 times that amount, but you can save 25% by buying from them, when if fact you are still over paying. Today I saw several products on a competing website that sell for TWICE our regular retail price, yet they claim it's discounted. It just disgusts me, but maybe I should be glad... because just as I see through this bs, so do many people I'm sure. ...stepping down from soapbox now

I love sites that advertise wholesale pricing and are the same price as everyones retail. I guess someone must be dumb enough to fall for it.

Originally Posted by maximpakt

I love sites that advertise wholesale pricing and are the same price as everyones retail. I guess someone must be dumb enough to fall for it.

I've run into this many times. How can "wholesale" be the same as someone else's retail? It's either wholesale OR retail. I guess if you don't speak english, then the 2 could be confused??

My latest dilemma is I am trying to buy some gossamer for part of our event, to do a canopy on the patio in the backyard, and THE SAME COMPANY has 8 different websites and phone numbers, and ALL the pricing is slightly different on each one.... You KNOW its the same company when the layout of the sites is EXACTLY the same, the only thing different is the pricing. So which site do you order from? The one that offers occasional discounts? or the one that is just cheaper from the start? It appears the shipping is the same from ALL the sites... I really don't know why a company feels the need to be deceptive like this. I've ordered from them multiple times in the past, and always get my stuff in a timely manner, but it just irks me that they do it to begin with.

I didn't know this until you pointed this out. Thanks for that.

I do love your store and I have purchased from you in the two past years, and will continue to do so.

I often use services like MySimon.com to search for the lowest price across several retailers. I don't know if the retailers post their prices to sites like that or if the sites have bots that go out and find the best prices. May be something you could look into. My wife uses TheFind.com, but I've never used it personally.