#1. The sale with an enormous list of exclusions.
3rd party merchandise, cashmere, leather… got it. But when a brand’s most popular pants, all suiting, and even “new arrivals” aren’t up for the code, you risk a solid % of customers getting to the checkout screen to only “WTF”? their way out of your website.
#2. Outrageously high minimum spend sales
There’s been a lot of minimum spend sales lately, (y’know, save 20% on orders of $100 and up)… but once that threshold gets above $125, it starts to get obnoxious.
#3. The “save up to” sale… with hardly any goods reaching that highest %.
This is a classic in the skeezy car dealer realm. They put one junker of a car at a ridiculously low price, and then bullhorn on about “CARS STARTING AS LOW AS $500!!!!”. When a sale is advertised as “up to 40%” off, and it quickly becomes clear that hardly anything catches more than a 20% off markdown, it’s an eye roller.
#4. The “Select Items” sale
Somewhat like #1, only worse. There’s the “take an extra 30% off sale items” sales, which are fine, and then there’s the dreaded “select items” sale. That limits the scope even more severely, and 95% of the time, it’s a waste of time.
An unfortunate sale that combines #3 and #4.
#5. The Flash Sale Site with “markdowns” that are easily beat.
There’s an enormous mass of flash/timed/membership sites, and this doesn’t happen with all of them, but there have been plenty of instances where an item has had its price “slashed” on flash sale site XYZ, yet you can get it for significantly cheaper somewhere else. And that somewhere else (almost always a standard retailer) will have a much easier returns system, shipping is cheaper, and their views/pictures/description of the product is more in depth.
#6. The over promoted sale with zero inventory.
Closely related to #4, but more often than not this is an entire sale section marked down an extra 20% with a code. But there’s nothing in the sale section. Looking in the direction of Ralph Lauren among others. Look, if there’s an end of season clearance and your website has been picked over, one email… maybe two is good. Five emails, a social media campaign, smoke signals, and a flock of messenger pigeons screaming about drastic reductions on XXLs and size 7 shoes is overkill.
#7. The small window of time sale
“Shop from 9pm – 11pm ET and save during our night out online sale! This Sunday only!!!” Wha… no thanks.
BONUS #8. Black Friday… in person.
Most of the time, it’s just not worth it. Question: Is it ever worth it anymore?
Agreements, disagreements, and additions to this listof sales one shouldn’t get their hopes up for are more than welcome in the comments section below… Top Photo Credit. Bottom Photo Credit.
The turkey hasn’t even moved into their large intestines yet.
Retailers take note!
“BOGO” sales that actually turned out to be Buy One Get One HALF OFF, which is too common anymore, is my pet peeve “sale.”
It equates to 25% off two items that are generally overpriced in the first place. BOGO should be reserved for actual get-one-free sales.
#8 is not worth it anymore. Cyber Monday is a better deal now.
Spot on
The idea of being stampeded by overweight soccer moms in search of $7 Blu-rays is fairly amusing to me.
The recent Bonobos %25 off $175 over the weekend also comes to mind as a ridiculous example of a non-sale
How about the perpetually renewing sale? JC Penney used to do it. Macy’s does it. Last Call does it. Is it really a sale if its your everyday price?
Black Friday was fun for me for the past few years, even though I got into it in 2007 as the level of deals started to drop. You could comfortably do Thanksgiving, then go to the store you want the doorbusters from at about 8pm and hang out with your friends playing games for several hours. But the changes in deals and more importantly the change in start times (8pm, really?) have taken the enjoyment out of it for me.
I’ve gotta give you alliteration credit on this one, Joe. Even in the subtitle!
So basically all Macy’s sales?
Not always… some of the men’s wardrobe sales and the One Day Sales are the real deal. To me at least…
This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves. As much love as there is for BR on this site, I think they’re some of the biggest offenders. They always seem to have a sale running somewhere between 20 and 40%. Luckily I’ve become wary of sales now and will typically try to do some research about the place I’m buying from, but it’s hard not to get duped these days if you happen upon a new store.
It’s a shame that there’s no way to automatically track prices on these types of sites (there are sites that do this for Amazon).
That sale is great with a giftcard. I referred someone and that extra 25% off allowed me to get a “free” pair of chinos.
Regarding #1, I’ve always been puzzled by the BR pants exclusions. Unlike the suiting, these are generally lower-cost items. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Gavin, Dawson, and Emerson pants have such large profit margins or are so necessary to the bottom line that they are basically never put on sale.
If you have a full retail offering, how much of your revenue can you possibly be getting from these pants?
That’s Cool! I just figured $130 min was too much. I would have loved to get one pair of gray chinos for $66 though. I can patient though.. it will eventually go on sale!
This post is brought to you by the good folks at Express. No store I know tries as many of these sales tactics. The odd sale stipulations, the minimal sale/clearance stock, it’s sometimes too much to bother with.
BR has taught me to never even visit their store/website unless it’s 40% or more. I’ve transferred this behavior to other stores, so in a way it has made me more thrifty.
The caption under the Target photo is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. Thanks for that.
It equates to worse than that, because the half off is on the item of lesser value. IF the two items cost the exact same amount, then it’s 25% off. If one costs more than the other, it’s less than 25% off… the bigger the difference in price, the lower the discount actually is. And lets be honest, if you aren’t getting at least 30% off retail at places like Express and BR, you’re paying too much.
But I totally agree, when I saw the headline for this article, that was the first sales gimmick that came to mind. Express fills my inbox with BOGO offers (and #7, while we’re at it).
But I keep the emails because of those occasions where you can coupon code on top of crazy end of season extra clearance and get that merino sweater for $14.99. 😛
yeah sounds like express
At BR in a week you cant even count the number limited time sales, selected item sales, cardholder sales and etc you see within the store. mostly around 20-40% i do love the brand but i am very selective about buying items
I have worked for the last eleven Black Fridays in a row, counting next week’s (which I will be working). Double-time-and-a-half is way better than standing around in line waiting for a bunch of cheap shit.
The only sales worth grabbing are the limited door busters. But if you have to wait 10-15 hours in line then doesn’t that kind of negate the money saved with potential money earned?