 On sale now! Everything in the store 50%, 60%, 70% Off!
Mother’s Day Sale, Pre-Christmas Sale, Christmas Sale, After Christmas Sale, Christmas in July Sale, Presidents Day Sale, Spring Sale, Summer Sale, Fall Sale, Back to School Sale, Easter Sale, St. Patrick’s Day Sale, Groundhog Day Sale, Millard Fillmore Birthday Sale…
How many names and reasons for sales can you name? I’ll bet a lot.
Everywhere you look today there seems to be a sale going on. The word “sale” has become one of those magic words in the shopping vocabulary right up there with “free”. But does it really make sense? More often than not, an overemphasis on sales is no more a substitute for a lack of quality or not having the right merchandise in the first place, so the company is forced to move less desirable merchandise.
A company that has sales or discounts has to work on a higher mark-up to begin with to allow for discounting. If a company discounts it’s prices, whether it’s for one sale or one day, they have to at some point make up for that loss of business another time. Every business has a target profit that they need in order to stay in business... it's Business 101. Almost everyone understands and recognizes this truth.
There are several different approaches to pricing. One is that a store marks up their merchandise to allow for sales or discounts. Another is that a store prices their merchandise as low as possible and sells that merchandise at the same low price every day.
I would personally be especially wary of jewelry stores that hold sales constantly or throw out easy discounts. One has to question that if they can give 40, 50, 60 and 70% off, what is their mark-up to begin with? Most importantly, ask yourself, what is more critical than trust and integrity in choosing a store?
After all, most people aren’t usually experts on diamonds, gold and platinum rings, etc., so they should seriously consider buying from a store that they can trust. Stores that discount and that are constantly having “sales” are, in essence, often trying to deceive people with their pricing. Can they be trusted to deliver the same quality that they are representing if they are trying to fool customers with deceptive pricing and sales?
Another consideration is that when most stores have big sales, they often times put away their best selling merchandise in the back and instead offer up only their slow moving merchandise. And in fact, for many sales, including but not limited to “going out of business” sales, outside companies bring in merchandise that has not sold at other stores around the country to help fill the cases. So you are not usually getting the most desirable merchandise at these sale prices.
Quite often customers will also ask about a discount and many more who don’t ask will wonder about a discount, so it’s important that I explain the reasons that we at E.E. Robbins don’t believe in discounting.
To begin with, is it really fair that the better negotiator gets a better price than someone else?
Is it right, for example, that a school teacher or a social worker, who may have devoted his or her life to better our society and struggles to exist on a meager salary should have to pay a higher price than for example, an attorney who makes a salary five or ten times that of the school teacher and happens to be an expert negotiator? Or fair that a store offers a sale price one day, but cannot offer that price on the day that may be best for you to buy? We don’t think so.
At E.E. Robbins we also believe that because we are selling engagement and wedding rings, i.e. rings that represent one’s commitment of love to each other, that these symbols should not be tainted with the distasteful practice of having to haggle over price. We all would love to own a new car, but yet most of us hate shopping for a car because of all the “sales games” that one often has to go through to buy one.
Buying an engagement or wedding ring should be one of the most exciting experiences of one’s life, an experience that’s informative, enjoyable and romantic. Haggling would instead turn this experience into an adversarial and combative struggle.
At E.E. Robbins, we avoid sales and bogus discounts. We offer up our fine quality products at very competitive prices and don’t try to entice customers with sales, gimmicky offers and other questionable promotions.
We believe that everyone is entitled to the same low price everyday of the year, no matter whom you are, and no matter when you’re ready to buy.
At E.E. Robbins, our priority is offering the finest quality engagement and wedding rings possible at a very fair value, and warm and truly caring service to help enhance the shopping experience. We treat our customers just like we want to be treated when we go shopping. We think this is the best way to do business. I hope you agree.
Emerson Robbins
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