A Sales Technique That Bugs Me

[lbpesq]

Maybe I’m turning into the “get off my lawn” guy, but there is a listing on reverb that just bugs me.  Eight days ago, the seller posted a set of Alembic P-Bass PUs and electronics for $400.  Not a bad price, though I’ve bought them for less.   Today, the ad reads ‘40% off, price reduced from $600 to $360’.    It just rubs me the wrong way.  Am I getting too old and crotchety?


Bill, tgo

[cozmik_cowboy]

Not at all; that stuff rankles my buttocks, too.

When I was 16, I was a stocker/bagboy at the local IGA; one day the owner had me marking cans of corn (that's right, kids - marking each can with a price gun, which the cashier read & entered manually) to match the sign: "Special! 4 for $1!"

Regular price was 22¢ per...........

Peter (who is saddened to report that they flew off the shelf)

[jwright9]

Reminds me of Guitar Center.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Speaking as a former GC employee, I must say - oh, yeah.

Peter

[senmen]

Bill,
that is modern marketing!
Look around and you will see that often with normal companies aswell.
Greetz
Oliver (Spyderman)

[glocke]

Maybe I’m turning into the “get off my lawn” guy, but there is a listing on reverb that just bugs me.  Eight days ago, the seller posted a set of Alembic P-Bass PUs and electronics for $400.  Not a bad price, though I’ve bought them for less.   Today, the ad reads ‘40% off, price reduced from $600 to $360’.    It just rubs me the wrong way.  Am I getting too old and crotchety?


Bill, tgo

Typical sales technique. 

What really gets me are shills/people that push their product overly hard.  Went to a local bass event back in the spring and some guy that publishes bass books was there...You just couldn't even have a normal conversation with the guy as every other sentence was "well i have a book that covers that" or "well you can join my website for 20 bucks a month blah blah blah".

Same deal with a guy that makes bass straps...this guy actually talked me into leaving one table to check out his products and all i got was "buy buy buy"/

I get it..they are there to sell product, but I and countless others will be more prone to buy something if we aren't assaulted with a hardcore sales pitch.

[senmen]

Exactly, Gregory!

Greetz
Oliver (Spyderman)

[pauldo]

I believe it was Frank Zappa that said:
“It is not getting any smarter out there, you need to come to terms with the stupidity and find a way to make it work for you.”

Some days I chant that mantra endlessly... yet still feel like the “get off my lawn” guy.   

[edwardofhuncote]

I have often wondered... who thought up 99 cents?

[cozmik_cowboy]

I have often wondered... who thought up 99 cents?

Or the .9¢ on a gas pump?

Peter

[gtrguy]

It seems like the internet search sites and Youtube are also turning into places that just want to feature sites that sell you something.
BTW, my first job at 17 was at an IGA store in Salem, OR!

[edwardofhuncote]

Another former bagboy here... bought my first car with money I made sacking groceries at Food World/Harris Teeter store. For a short while I held a rather dubious record of having pushed some ridiculous number of buggies uphill back to the store.


Oh yeah... they used to have a weekly "9 cent sale" on something. A loaf of bread, a pound of margarine, a sleeve of biscuits... every week, something you were freakin' guaranteed to run out of by Wednesday and be writing rain-checks for the rest of the week. 

[sonicus]

Bill , as per your post I am in agreement as to why that is an irritation  .

[cozmik_cowboy]

And another thing:  Call it what it is!
Today I passed a subdivision with a sign for "Paired Villa Homes"; that's a duplex, dadgummit!!


This sort of thing pushes me toward "WWSD?" territory - right, Bill?


Peter