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Can someone explain this to me


Square Wheels

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You bring in a price from a competitor's store for the same mattress,  If they can't do better, they give you a free mattress.

Which is all well and good except:

1 - Whatever price you bring in, they will beat by a dollar or a dime so they don't have to give you a 'free' mattress.  They will beat it by so little it's not worth your time to go back and forth to beat them down further.

2 - Mattress stores never, never carry the identical mattress as their competitors.  Even if it's made by the same manufacturer, one is called a 'Posture-matic' and the competitor sells the exact same mattress as the 'Ortho-matic'.  This tactic effectively eliminates a one to one comparison and allows mattress outlets to post signs like the one you saw without having to worry about giving anything away.

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:D

It's always their 'best' price.

Until you go get a better one.  They they'll give you a new 'best' price, or they will point out that the mattresses are quite exactly the same.

The last time I bought a mattress, the salesman said 'We guarantee this is the lowest price on this mattress in the entire area!'

And I said 'Well, nobody else sells this exact same mattress in the area.  They may have the exact same product, but they give it a different name so that it's impossible to compare prices and mattresses like you say.'

You should have seen his face. You'd have thought I stole the secret of his magic trick and kicked his pet kitten at the same time.  But he did admit what I said was true.

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1 hour ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

:D

It's always their 'best' price.

Until you go get a better one.  They they'll give you a new 'best' price, or they will point out that the mattresses are quite exactly the same.

The last time I bought a mattress, the salesman said 'We guarantee this is the lowest price on this mattress in the entire area!'

And I said 'Well, nobody else sells this exact same mattress in the area.  They may have the exact same product, but they give it a different name so that it's impossible to compare prices and mattresses like you say.'

You should have seen his face. You'd have thought I stole the secret of his magic trick and kicked his pet kitten at the same time.  But he did admit what I said was true.

I briefly worked retail major appliances after being laid off at P&W.  I worked in a tech box store called Lechmere, a New England chain.  We certainly had a different sku for our appliances even if they appeared to be the same.  In many cases however that allowed our supplier to use a cheaper part to hold our costs down.  For example we might have sold a Whirlpool washing machine that looked exactly like the one at Sears but had a cheaper pump.  That might matter or it might not but it meant that we could undersell others and still make money.

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I work in a factory that all we make is the insides mattress and no two manufacturer carry the exact same thing. It will even come down to .002in in the wire used in the making of the springs for a drifrent brand. 

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My guess is "their best price" means the lowest price that they will ever sell it for.  One of the shopping channels on TV regularly lists items as "once only" where they claim it to be the lowest price they have ever offered the item for and that they will never sell it cheaper.  Of course, all they have to do is simply change the model number, model year or name of the product, and they can avoid any consequences of making this offer.

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A buddy of mine in desperation, took a job at one of those chains. Floor guy. After a week of unpaid training, they put him to work. He had some authority to cut the price with a corresponding decrease in commission. His manager could make a last price cut to make the sale, but no commission to the sales guy. At the end of his first week, 80 hours and about 200 bucks pay. He quit.  

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