Shady Jewelry Store Advertising Tactics
Tip It!I’ve written in the past about mall jewelry stores and how everything that they sell seems to be perpetually on sale for 30%, 50%, or even 70% off the ‘regular’ price. In fact, it got so bad that at one point Zales was inserting a bit of small print into their TV ads admitting that “Original prices may not have resulted in sales.” Well, those dastardly jewelers are back at it… In the runup to Mother’s Day I say a TV ad for some sort of trinket (probably a tennis bracelet — it seems like they’re always hawking tennis bracelets) that was ‘on sale’ for $299. The fine print? In this case they specified a ‘will be’ price, and in “Will be $399.” In other words, as long as they bump the price up at some point in the future (like once they’ve sold out and the item is on backorder) they can get away with calling the current (i.e., regular) price a sale price. As always, buyer beware. Especially when it comes to mall jewelry stores.
Published on May 12th, 2006 - 9 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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May 12th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Ever been to Kohls? They do the exact same thing, everything is on sale every day of every week. I think it just reaches the point where you disregard the “sale.” If the reason why you are buying something is to get a deal you probably shouldn’t be buying it.
May 13th, 2006 at 12:25 am
Talk about bogus on-sale. I have been noticing that there are some stores that claim to go out of business in X days, and “Everything Must Go”. You know what, after X days, they are still there, and the clearance sale price was never a good price. There are so many unwise shoppers out there. I walked out of those stores with 40% off entire store without picking any items which are simply too pricey, and yet the store is more than half empty. Lots of people think going-out-of-business sale must be good, but in fact, it is not.
May 14th, 2006 at 12:08 am
We have a carpet store that has had a remodeling sale for a couple of months now. Hmmmm….
May 14th, 2006 at 10:32 am
I always notice when the nearby auto dealership has their “We ordered too many cars, our lots are overpacked, everything must go” sale, and on the same ad it’ll say “we’ll buy your trade-in even if you don’t buy from us.” I guess there must be a little space left on the lots after all…
May 15th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
One other thing to look for with outlets, specifically Zales Outlet is the return policy. I learned the hard way that the Zales Outlet has no return policy, as per the line of 10 pt text on my 22 inches of receipt. And, I was told, there was a sign warning me… behind the register on the other side of the store.
I’m still pretty steamed about it. Yes, I should have read every word of the receipt before signing it. A slightly expensive life lesson.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:08 am
I remember once having a conversation with a friend of mine, whoc pointed out that ‘SALE’ simply means that a store has stuff for sale, not necessarilly at a good price.
June 14th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Third anniversary-fire sale! The rug stores crack me up sometimes. Those are ussually small shops, but how can big chains do this sneaky crap? Is there one evil person or do all 1000 employees get together and decide how to con customers? I know some people can’t work where they want, but I am starting get mad at the tools that work service for these companies!
Somehow they always can get your money back, if you ask 5 times, so they know you weren’t fairly dealt with.
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
Its true that there are alot of false advertising going on. But lets not just narrrow it down to just mall jewelry stores. It happens across the board in all types of retailers, whether in or out of the mall.
My disclaimer: I work in a mall jewe;ry store, called Levi and Sons. Even though we are having sale signs up, they truly are very good deals. I think in most cases, people shou;d know where to go and trust someone wneh they buy jewelry. I know for a fact, that I personally give fair prices to my customers. I believe that if you give a good deal to someone, they will come back and buy again. And they will probably bring in their friends and family as a referrals.
Thank you
June 12th, 2010 at 1:46 am
I may be a bit late on this.. but oh well. If someone reads this in the future they may find this helpful.
Back near Christmas I got a necklace for my girlfriend and Zales. It wasn’t really that expensive.. but I ended up getting it for $149 instead of the $259 on the sticker in the store. I was shopping around online and found it. I printed off the add since when I went into the store I wanted to make sure I got the same exact thing. So when I went in I showed them the paper and the salesman hands me the necklace. He looks at the price on the sheet and says “We always take the lowest price” so since I had proof that the lowest prices that item had been on sale for was $149.99 that’s what they sold it to me for. Even on my receipt it says I got it for 42% off.