When is a sale the real deal?
If a store offers a dishwasher on sale for most of the year, is it fair to say that the dishwasher is really being sold at a genuine discount?
Retailers are now allowed to sell merchandise – from furniture and kitchen appliances to shampoo – at so-called sale prices up to 69 percent of the year, meaning they can be offered at the regular price just 31 percent of the time. The change is significant because for nearly two decades, state regulations have prevented retailers from designating a product as being “on sale” unless it was offered at a higher price at least 55 percent of the time.
Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and founder of the website consumerworld.org, said the change, which took effect on Jan. 4, could add to a growing sense among shoppers that retailers make false claims about savings or inflate prices so they can drop them slightly to promote a “sale.”
“We know consumers love a bargain,” Dworsky said. “But if the savings are illusory, there’s no real savings.”
The fact that state regulations on sale prices exist may come as a surprise to many people, considering the blizzard of sales circulars crowding home mailboxes and the barrage of bright sale signs across store windows. The attorney general’s office, which is responsible for enforcing a long list of regulations for retail pricing, has the authority to fine a business as much as $5,000 for breaking the rules and can also demand consumer restitution or take civil action.
