How important is getting a discount in buying an item to you?

It’s not the discount, it’s the actual price of the item – I’d rather buy an item normally priced at $5 with no discount than the same item normally at $13 with a $2 discount.

If it’s a major purchase, I almost always research online to find the best price. If I’m buying something online, big or little, I always look for an online coupon code for that particular site. I really like to find free shipping deals, at the very least. I do clip coupons, but I’m not obsessed with it like some of the “super-couponers.” If I need something, and it’s not on sale, I still buy it.

Very important. Heck; I even buy used clothes on Ebay! I feel like I’m beating the system.

Depends. I hate paying full retail for clothing or shoes, but for private label items I am fine with it. Private label is typically priced reasonably to begin with, and I am not one to dig through mountains of sale items. I guess I prefer a 20% off coupon to sale racks.

For quality items that are almost never on sale, I don’t worry about catching a sale, but if I happen to hit one, I do stock up a little.

As far as food goes, I buy what I like, and I tend to be brand loyal. I will buy more of something if it is on sale, and I do use coupons, but I also will not go out of my way to save a little money. With gas prices as they are, it doesn’t pay to drive to another store anyway.

Big purchases like houses and cars, I just hope to get a fair price for what I want.

I do hate to pay a ton of money for an airline ticket when I know I am getting gouged, and here in Memphis we are gouged. This is one of the most expensive airports to fly from, and it has nothing to do with fuel prices, and everything to do with Delta basically being the only airline with nonstop flight, except for the cities where United and American hub. I try to use free tickets through my frequent flyer credit card whenever possible.

Hotels I will spend a little more to be in a moderate hotel that has triple sheeted beds. I HATE bedspreads with icky thin blankets underneath. I also will pay a little more for a suite at times, and it doesn’t have to be on a deal, but I do rack up frequent points at the hotels and try to catch promotions when I can. On my last stay I spent an extra $50 a night for a suite, but I also got a free nights stay at the next city I needed to book, so I rationalize it balanced out.

In the end, it is what you spend not what you save. Focusing on and talking about what you save tends to be the habit of people who spend too much from what I have observed.

I always keep track of the cost of things, so when I see a discount, I know if it is a good price or not. I would much rather pay a lower price for the same item, if I buy at all. I would rather do without than pay too much.

Always important, I look for that.

It totally depends on the item for me. I get a 40 percent discount where I work so I buy some stuff that I wouldn’t otherwise buy because 12 dollars for an item that I want but don’t need is much more reasonable than 20. I only started wearing belts because my store sells the only belts I like and with my discount, they are pretty cheap.

However, if I need something, or prefer a certain brand or kind, then I will pay a little extra to buy it.

P.S. – your suspicion is not entirely wrong. Where I work, the company doesn’t jack up prices and then put them on sale, but they do make the discounts smaller. Clearance used to always be 50% off but now some clearance is 40% or even 30% off. They don’t take as much off some of their sales either. It’s not a huge amount. Maybe a shirt that would have been 15 dollars on sale is now 16 dollars instead, but it’s enough so that if we sell a thousand of the shirts, that’s a thousand more dollars than we made last year.

About the pricing. Generally furniture and fine jewelry is overpriced and expected to be discounted. I think furniture is something like a 400% mark up.

Clothing is generally a 100% mark up from cost. Items are marked down after a certain amount of weeks to clear out the inventory. It cost money to hold onto the goods. Some vendors actually pay for the discount. So, say Bloomingdale’s discounts Joseph Abboud suits 25% off, Joseph Abboud might actually pay Bloomies the 25% difference, and Bloomies loses nothing. It varies by vendor. It isn’t really a game the retailers are playing with you in stores like Bloomingdale’s, Saks, Neimans, it is business. In the better stores they get fewer of an item, and if you need a size 4, probably only one or two are shipped in a group, if you wait for a sale you risk not getting what you want. So if you want your pick of the litter you pay a little more. The shopping experience is typically more pleasant, has a higher level of service, and geberally takes less time.

Some states have laws about baiting people with false sale adds, or loss leaders, or even pricing over suggested retail.