Let’s stop calling it price cutting and calling it what it really is- degouging.
Slightly less gouging
Raises prices by $1, lower them by $0.25 a year later, and if you own all major media, they’ll tell people it’s something to celebrate while ignoring prices are still arbitrarily inflated.
My strategy with taxes in SimCity 2000
I assume this is not a benevolent action, but a gimmick to get people back to spending more.
Your assumption appears to be correct. They even state they want to break consumers out of the frugal habit (paraphrasing).
People are broke, you dumb twats.
And we’re learning how to frugal better, therefore buying less in the future too. I do not feel sorry for the shareholders.
They are delicious with BBQ sauce!
“People are broke, you dumb twats.”
I want to make this into a billboard that we lease right outside the CEO of walgreens office window.
Then I want to send him a T-Shirt with this on it.
And then a custom doormat to put outside his house.
…how hard would it be to tattoo it on his forehead without him noticing until after we’re done/gone? I don’t even want him to know we’ve been there.
Even if it wasn’t a gimmick, it still wouldn’t be benevolent. Corporations only lower prices when they think the lower price can make them more money overall.
The only reason they’re doing this is because they realized they’ll make more money by lowering prices. Do not mistake this as good will.
I’m going to use fake numbers here for the sake of simplicity to explain a concept of what just happened.
2020 absolutely had inflation from multiple different reasons. But…most of those reasons were temporary, which have now resolved.
So, here’s where those fake numbers come in.
Lets say 2019 prices were around a 5% inflation. There is no covid. It’s the last year of normal life. Stores aren’t going crazy.
2020 comes, all hell breaks loose. Actual inflation is now at 13%. But stores are trying to figure out how to stay alive. So they charge as if we’re at 22% inflation. This massive jump makes consumers buy considerably less. Spend more currency, but buy less product.
The end result is these companies made record profits selling less.
And then the work shortages caught up. The shipping shortages caught up. The microchip production resumed. And that temporary actual inflation fell. But because our country has never had a situation where inflation might fall, stores have just kept charging that 22% inflation prices, even though they’re paying maybe 7% inflation now. A realistic jump considering everything thats happened.
Meanwhile consumers are seeing gatoraide shrink from 32 to 28 oz, and instead of charging $1.25 for it, it’s being sold for $3. And consumers are saying “I’M NOT PAYING MORE TO GET LESS!”
And so stores are probably going to drop that $3 to $1.75. You’re still paying more and getting less, but that $3 price is in your mind now so you think you’re paying a normal fair price, rather than getting ripped off compared to 5 years ago.
So instead of charging 22%, now the artificial inflation is at 16% while actual inflation is 13%. They’re still ripping you off, but now they want to continue to rip you off. Can’t rip you off if you buy nothing.
This is what’s actually meant by the “invisible hand.” They pushed prices past what the market was willing to bear, and lost sales as people made do without. Now they’re adjusting prices back down, because it makes more sense to accept a smaller margin and make it up in volume. It’s a textbook example of the demand curve in action.
When market-based systems work, they work fairly elegantly. It’s the cases where they break down that I get concerned with.
When Walgreens cuts prices, it’s usually shrinkflation. They often have deals on paper towels and toilet paper — but when you look at the sheet count, it’s about half of what you would get on the same roll at a grocery store.
Same for fluid ounces on things like dish and laundry soap.
OMG. Just got burned by Walgreens by this. Went to buy eyedrops. The name brand was out, so I bought the Walgreens brand. Same size box, slightly over the (out of stock brand) price. Got home, opened the box… I’ve never seen a bottle of eyedrops so small. Normal bottle is 0.25 oz. This one was 0.08 oz.
Fuck Walgreens.
Eyedrops are ungodly expensive. If you can wait a day or two, Amazon will usually ship a two pack for less than a single one from Walgreens or CVS. No one can justify $19 for a single goddamn bottle of eyedrops.
And it’s absurd what they charge for things like batteries, compared to other places.
Make it so Doritos are back to being ~$3 per bag instead of $6+.
My store is $8.79 for the family size bag…which I assume we’re talking about.
Holy shit yes. Even the local brands around here are ridiculous.
I thought I found a bargain the other day because they had this big thing of tortilla chips for only $2! Wow!
And then I got home and the bag was about 1/3 filled with chips. I forgot to check the weight versus a normal bag. I got swindled.
Santitas?
Commence deflation.
Corporations caused it to go up, now they must cause it to go down.
This could get ugly. Guess what everyone, if we keep not shopping, they’ll do it again!
Fine by me. I gotta buy one pair of jeans, and after that my pockets are going to sound like somebody torturing Aberaham Lincoln. Because I’m pinching pennys REAL HARD.
