I believe he set up his brother to do this using seconds of product and there was a vendors licence but the idea was that he was peddling real stolen product. The brother carried with him invoices showing that he had paid for it so if hassled by the police he would not be arrested.
Page 129 in his autobiography.
Thank you. I’ll request it from my library.
Agreed. A restaurant that has an online ordering interface as their online menu is a non-starter for me.
I might expect that from e.g. BurgerWorld. But once you move beyond drive-thru equipped fast food, that’s a showstopper for me.
I’ve complained about the online menus with no prices before on two separate threads. I think it’s social engineering. A lot of people will look over different menus (with prices) before deciding what they want. But if they get you into the ordering process before you see the prices, a certain number of those people will just go and finish the order instead of clicking on a different menu. It may not be a large percentage, but once the system is set up, it creates a little more business at no cost, ad infinitum.
But there are also some customers who will look at the menu without prices and just nope out. Which group is larger?
I am one of those who nopes out. I suspect those of us who hate the system is small and getting smaller.
Yeah. I buy vintage items on etsy, and there’s always just the one item available. The website must be programmed to post the “Last item!” warning, but it’s because there really is only one available. With most antique/vintage items, it’s difficult to find other items.
The test is to check the website after you purchase the item and see if the number has gone down.
Me too. I assume that if they are hiding the prices, that I don’t want to see them.
I’d expect that big, legitimate sites like Amazon or Etsy would be honest about the “One left!” or the like. Any site that pulls the “One left!” or “limited supply” with a number that never changes, I’d also expect to pull all manner of other skeezy or even illegal business practices, and I’d never knowingly do business with such a site.
I can confirm that Amazon posts legitimate numbers. I’ve bought “one item left” and went back and checked, and sure enough it’s either unavailable or the estimate for delivery changes from the original 2 days to now multiple weeks (presumably because they will be restocking).
I don’t have enough experience with Etsy to say one way or another. I’ve bought stuff there multiple times, but maybe once a year or so.
It’s the same at etsy. Once you buy it, it’s unavailable.
When I see a restaurant website without prices posted on their menu, I assume they either don’t want to have to change their website every time they raise prices, or they are afraid they’ll scare me off by posting them. If I’m really interested in trying the restaurant anyway, I’ll visit a review site and look for recent pix of the menu. Otherwise, I’ll move on to another dining option.
For weeks, I’ve been bombarded with ads for dog cooling pads that cycle thru “Last chance to get BOGO - sale ends TOMORROW!!!” and “80% sold - buy now before supplies are gone” and “We apologize if you bought our stuff last week, because we just ordered too many and we’re offering this amazing deal!!!”
They do show the prices and they are always the same. But they’ll try to induce panic-buying anyway. And it pisses me off because the ads pop up while I’m trying to play my free games on my tablet - how dare they!!!
But in keeping with the OP, yeah, I hate the nonsense of “We’ll show you the price when you put it in your cart” or similar games. What’s next? Do we get to guess what they want us to pay??
Heh. I have, for the lulz, looked at the websites of Nevada brothels and lemme tell ya, the price isn’t just TOP SECRET on the website, it’s Classified at the brothel as well. The customer is expected to start the negotiations.
Well what the ever loving fuck. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. A hundred bucks? A thousand? Ten thousand? What’s more, if I come in too high I’ll have been played for a fool. And if I come in too low, I’ve insulted my courtesan. Unless you’ve done this before, you can’t win.
Depending upon how it’s done, it’s a simple as copying a file over; it’s even possible some POS (Point of Sale, not piece of…) software can push it out when you update it in the main computer.
It’s been my general experience that, when companies cloak their prices, it’s because they are trying to get you to totally buy into what they are selling before you see it. That’s indicative of a bad deal for you.
I don’t doubt it’s easy. I do know, from personal experience, that it’s beyond my current knowledge and I’m at the point in my life where I don’t really want to learn. I have a website for an organization I run, and the website is designed to be relatively timeless. I pay a guy (my son-in-law, actually) to make updates as necessary, which is about once a year. I suspect a lot of independent restaurants have the same feel for tech I do.
“I’m sorry, miss, I’m from out of town – do you take Green Stamps?”