Whew, both online and in-store, you’ll see a fake old price tag of 20k ntd like “80% off!!!” but if you look around (even within TW), the sale price is just the regular price. I’m surprised there’s no antitrust regulations on this.
I remember there was a store in TianMu that may still exist near the mall and that Mexican/beer restaurant: They’d have a “Going out of business sale” for like 8 years. It was called Banana Something.
edit: This goes extra wild for appliances. Whirlpool dryers are like “originally 80k ntd, now only 30k!!!”
Many outlet places at Mitsui Outlet just have normal dept store prices with fake discounts. 1:1 prices, but “used to be 60% more!!” with some ridiculous “original price” you’d never believe, especially if you’re familiar with the brand.
Do other countries have this? I think it happens in the US too
But maybe it’s not so much of an issue there due to strong consumer protection laws around returning items purchased in person? No returns allowed in Taiwan if it’s made in person unless the merchant allows it, so you’re more likely to get a sales pitch and overcharged at a shopping outlet then later regret it.
Shopee now has a flash sale feature on its front page, where sales take place for 30-60 minutes several times a day.
However, alot of the time for big electronics (e.g. phones) the “flash sale” price is the same as the regular price, i.e. there’s no discount. They’re just using it for advertising.
Seems like a completely con - the app shouldn’t allow it.
So Taiwan lol.
Taiwan is the only place I’ve seen shops proudly displaying 5% off discounts as if that would get people excited.
It must be some psychological trigger though otherwise they wouldn’t do it.
It’s pretty insulting, isn’t it? Taking society for full on retarded, it’s frankly disrespectful. Even for a period before the sale, before their near expiry deadline, raise the prices. Let the sheep get used to it, then mark “down” as on sale.
I usually make a complaint, mention the reason I won’t be buying this thing from this store (because I am being lied to) and walk out.
When I first moved here, I go “WOW, 95% off?!”
…oh, 95% “of” lol.
Yeah 5% makes me want to not even look at it out of spite for being so cheap.
Edit: Maybe it’s like the “line (PaiDui)” mentality in TW; just draws people in no matter what it is? I feel like some folks in TW would wait in line without ever knowing what it is until they get to the front, just so they don’t miss out!
Here’s a low-effort chatgpt cartoon that I’m too lazy to iterate upon
People do get excited, easy to see at Costco when everyone is buying 4 package of tissues because is just 5% less. Its suck because they never have good sales because they can just do this little percentage and people buy it.
Yeah it’s the worst place for sales…ever.
Carrefour and QuanLien in Taiwan must make incredible profits they almost never offer any reasonable discount or sale.
They make hand over fist. PX mart is one of the worst here. As a supplier for them, we fucking loath that company. As do basically all their suppliers. Not just huge profits (manufacturers make nearly nothing) they also often return things they are too lazy to sell. They put in zero effort for marketing, it’s all on the supplier (common practice) and they take months to pay out (can be crippling). Often deducting their own mistakes. Plus they barely hire ant staff. A shit company, through and through. That’s why they are everywhere and buying up so much real estate and expanding so fast
In Danshui a shop selling hand bag has been having a going out of business sale for like the last 5 years. Sometimes they go around yelling “going out of business sale” and I would say “I thought you were going out of business last year”.
No way anyone’s paying 900RMB for some power tool batteries.
I doubt there’s any law against it, only that the actual price charged isn’t at “price gouging” levels (a Chinese guy asked if there are “price control officers” in the US because he complains that the price of commissary at immigration jail is too expensive, and I told him this is America, there’s no “price control officer” in the land of the free).
The funny thing is, at Carrefour and PX, I will commonly see a fake discount of 5NTD with the shelf just cleaned out. People just go nuts for even the slightest discount. I used to work in a supermarket during uni days, we would write down all the house baked bread every night to 50c. No one even gave a flock, most bread was just chucked. Could you imagine that in Taiwan?
That’s actually a +1 for Taiwan then. Less waste. Though food waste, and waste in general, is a big issue here. It’s the easiest way to get rid of nearly expired stuff. A sale. But it them creates a bargain seeking culture which no retail outlet wants. Easier to jack up, then discount.
Taiwanese aren’t rich for no reason. The whole face and pride thing goes right out the window when it comes to either money or laziness
Actually a nation’s wealth is often due to institution, not because of how their people are. It’s a big reason why sub Saharan africa is often so poor, piss poor institution, even though they have a lot of resources.
It’s why North Korea is poor too.
Now individual wealth might be something else altogether.
