# How do dept. store stay in business? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 2, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659 "2012-11-02T13:26:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/1 "2012-11-02T13:26:41Z")
I was in a local dept. store yesterday looking for an electronic scale and a shower curtain. They happened to be located right next to each other. Although there were several choices for each there were no price tags either on the shelves or on the items. There were no bar code readers I could see anywhere, except at the cash register in the housewares dept., which was, of course, unmanned. I held an item up to the bar code reader, but it gave only a greeting message–no price. I guess you had to have a key to get it to work. The central cash had a line in front, so I gave up and left the store. I realize they have to slim down to compete with Walmart, but this is ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/2 "2012-11-02T15:15:06Z")
Well, I’d rephrase the question to ask “How does THIS dept. store stay in business.” but I don’t know the answer to that. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/3 "2012-11-02T15:58:33Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Well, I’d rephrase the question to ask “How does THIS dept. store stay in business.” but I don’t know the answer to that. It’s a front? ---
**Author:** ![Coustralee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Coustralee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coustralee)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/4 "2012-11-02T16:21:02Z")
drives me up the wall the no prices thing. maybe they’re just after the people who just buy without looking. The other thing that bugs me is i find a new business and i want to tell friends on the net about it, but they haven’t created a site or have any info about them anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/5 "2012-11-02T17:22:00Z")
I’ve never been in a store that didn’t have prices. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/6 "2012-11-02T17:43:24Z")
If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/7 "2012-11-02T17:46:20Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > I’ve never been in a store that didn’t have prices. When I was on my summer vacation, I needed a baseball cap and a water bottle. I went into a store that had those sorts of things as souveniers. They didn’t have prices on them, but how much could they be? They’re a baseball cap and a water bottle. $46?!? Holy shit! Yeah, I paid tourist prices for a logo. I’m a sucker, I admit it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/8 "2012-11-03T04:22:35Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > When I was on my summer vacation, I needed a baseball cap and a water bottle. I went into a store that had those sorts of things as souveniers. They didn’t have prices on them, but how much could they be? They’re a baseball cap and a water bottle. > > $46?!? Holy shit! > > Yeah, I paid tourist prices for a logo. I’m a sucker, I admit it. OP’s question answered. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/9 "2012-11-04T16:17:41Z")
No the prices are typical dept store prices. And the store is not new. According to wiki, it is the oldest business in North America and one of the oldest in the world, founded in 1670 as fur trading posts on Hudson’s Bay. I don’t mean to suggest there are no prices on anything. It is just that the two items I was looking for didn’t have prices and there were no machines around to read them, nor any way to find the price short of waiting in line at the cash. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/10 "2012-11-04T23:34:16Z")
O.K., I presume that this store is The Bay (although they’re in the process of changing the name of their stores to Hudson’s Bay): > **[Bay (disambiguation)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bay)** > > A bay is an area of water bordered by land on three sides. > Bay, Bays or baying may also refer to: So you live in some little Canadian village with just a trading post, I guess. The fur traders who come to town don’t care much about prices, it appears. They just take the money they’ve been given for their furs and go get drunk on Moosehead Lager, eat poutine, call each other “hosers,” listen to recordings of Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On,” and . . . um . . . I’ve run out of Canadian stereotypes, not that I knew very many of them in the first place. Actually, according to the Wikipedia entry, The Bay is a moderately expensive sort of department store. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-dept-store-stay-in-business/639659/11 "2012-11-05T00:55:04Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > . . . .The central cash had a line in front . . . . That could be a clue.