I’m sure everyone has heard or seen and ad where they say “the prices are so low that we can’t tell you!”
Just today I heard a radio ad for plane tickets or something, and they said to the effect of “the prices are so low we aren’t allowed to say over the air”.
Is there really some reason an advertiser cannot tell us their supposed “low prices”? Or is it (as I suspect) a way to get people to visit their store or website?
It would seem more effective to actually say the price if it were actually a good price.
My understanding is that while US law specifically allows a vendor to sell something at any price they like (even taking a loss if they want), it’s possible for a manufacturer to specify that their resellers may not ADVERTISE a product at less than a given price.
Note, for example, that you almost never see advertised discounts of more than a few dollars on Apple products: Macs and iPods, even though sub-MSRP iPods might make great loss-leaders for electronics vendors.
There are plenty of items at the Best Buy site and Amazon, etc., that you have to add to your cart to see the price. I believe it’s for the same reason.
There are also places that will price-match, but only for advertised prices.
Some areas have laws regarding the advertising of alcohol and cigarettes, for example, that might prohibit putting in prices.
(ISTR a case around here with a bar that wanted to advertise a “happy hour” with drink prices and they couldn’t for some reason. It’s probably been about 20 years ago, though, and that’s not retail.)
Ah ok, I wasn’t considering how a manufacturer could place a condition on product sales like “do not advertise below this price”.
So I guess if one goes to a website and sees a product “too low to mention” with the price there, prominently displayed on that stores main page, it can’t be construed as an advertisement? I guess the way they get around that is the “put item in cart to see!!!”, therefore putting the consumer one more step towards purchase (regardless of the price).
Several years ago we weren’t allowed to advertise the actual sales price of Mitsubishi products for a retailer because the company didn’t allow it.
Now, with reguards to alcohol it depends on the state. In Texas you cannot use free alcohol as a promotion. That means you cannot advertise “Buy one get one free” but you CAN advertise “Two for the price of one.” (which is the same thing but now legal).
In the same vein, why do FOR RENT signs often not have the rental price listed? You’re gonna make me call you and waste my time and yours when the price is out of my range? Why not save everyone a little and just put the monthly rent on the damn sign? You better believe I’m gonna be grumpy about it when you make me call instead.
How so? If you’re buying an Apple computer, there’s no competition at all. You pay what Apple charges. You’re under no obligation to purchase an Apple.
There are only a handful of reasons why a retailer wouldn’t advertise a sale price:
The manufacturer has a contract with them that stipulates they can’t advertise the product at less than a certain price. As noted upthread, the manufacturer can’t set the selling price, but they can stipulate that the retailer can’t advertise it.
As noted, other retailers may price-match, but they’ll only match an advertised price.
A particular state may have a “fair trade” law that stipulates a seller can’t advertise a price below a certain level (to prevent loss-leaders that would drive small retailers out of business) – but it’s my understanding most of those fair-trade laws have been repealed.
It’s just a marketing ploy to get you into the store, put the item in your cart, etc., which brings you one step closer to committing without shopping around.
It can’t be quite as annoying as going into a shop that has no prices. This is the opposite problem, the prices are so expensive that if you need to ask, then you can’t afford it.
Some people are lonely and like getting phone calls.
Some people want to hear the caller’s voice to try to determine his or her race and then decide whether to say the property is already rented. They also do this based on whether they hear children’s voices in the background.
In Pennsylvania, the state regulates the price of certain items, such as milk and cigs. It is therefore common to see ads saying, for instance, “Cigarettes at the lowest price allowed by law”.
That’s the other technique–having to request quotations. Yes, it wastes everyone’s time. It also gives the seller the opportunity to look you up and down before figuring how much he’ll get out of you, and it gives him the chance to put a sales pitch on you.
Or, conceivably, the realtors colluded to take down prices everywhere, to cut down on price competition among them.
Um, i don’t think that’s what happens. Look… if they wanted to turn down renters, they can still do it when they call having seen the price on the sign.
The term you’d want to search for with Google is “minimum advertised price.” Most of the retail industry refers to it simply as “M.A.P.” but if you google that you’ll just find a bunch of actual maps.
I’m in the automotive electronics business, and many manufacturers have a M.A.P., although I’m not sure how widely enforced it is.
From what I gather, if a dealer were to put a Viper car alarm or remote starter in the newspaper for below M.A.P., Directed Electronics (the manufacturer of Viper products) could cut the dealer off.
However, I’d imagine that if you went there yourself and discussed the sale in person, they could sell it to you for whatever price the want.
When I managed apartments, the main reason was that the people putting up the signs (the owners) had different goals than the people fielding a million pointless calls (the manager, me). The owner wanted to see a high call volume, and wanted me to feel pressure to keep my percentage appointment and renter conversions up (We expected about 10% of calls to turn into appointments and about 20% of appointments to turn into renters.) Thus, the manager could put up a “Rent reduced” sign with no numbers, double the call volume and then complain that my number of appointments didn’t also double.
(One of the owners I worked for once responded to a low call volume by telling me to go out on the street and solicit pedestrians to view the apartments.)
