Regular vs. Sale Price

A customer brought in her receipt and an advertisement from our main competitor. Her complaint? The item was supposed to be on sale but we charged her full price. I pointed out that it wasn't OUR ad, but that we do match prices. She was surprised that it wasn't our ad, even though both her receipt from our store and the ad from the competitor had the store names clearly marked. The ad didn't say what the regular price was on that item, it just said how much the discount was. I had my suspicions, but I called anyway.

After going through several menu options I finally reached a live person, asked the price of the item (pretending to be a customer, of course), and was put on hold. I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally I got the price and my suspicions were confirmed….our REGULAR price is cheaper than their SALE price.

I told the customer that and she seemed upset. She asked, "So I'm not going to get any money back?"

No, because even with the discount they charge more than we do.

"Wait. I don't understand."

Their REGULAR price is $39. With the discount, they're selling it for $35. Our REGULAR price is $32.

I could tell from her face that she still wasn't getting it, so I slowed it down and made it simple.

Their price: $35. Our price: $32. Our price is already lower so if I matched their price you would owe me money.

"Oh, I understand now."

GOOD

We're cheaper on almost everything, even the sale items. I guess the competitor needs to charge more to afford all their advertisements. We don't advertise in the newspaper very often…..we rely mostly on our regular customers returning and spreading the news about our greatness to their friends. Occasionally we'll be out of something and our regulars admit that since they need the item so badly they'll visit the competitor, but that they hate shopping there. That's what we like to hear!