That's just evil.

Posted by: never mind that at March 12, 2004 12:06 PM

I'm just speculating, but what if this is a permament price drop?

They might save time by placing the standard, new price sticker under a temporary sticker, then just remove the temporary one when the price is no longer new.

Not that me, Target, or most anyone else would be above saying a price is special when it's really not, if it's effective.

Posted by: Ben Sinclair at March 12, 2004 12:31 PM

If the previous price really was 14.44, and they are advertising it as a price cut, then it is deceptive advertising. But it may also be a case of having made the price cut and labelled the shelves, they then started promoting the price cut and put a new label over it.

Posted by: Carlos Gomez at March 12, 2004 04:25 PM

It's like those TV infomercials that sell something for $19.99 but say it's a $80 value. Nobody's ever sold it at $80 but people will think they're getting a great deal because of the huge price drop.

Posted by: RotJ at March 16, 2004 03:22 PM

Behind the second tag, there was clearly a third. Did that say 19.99 by any chance?

Posted by: David North at March 19, 2004 04:33 PM

The evidence doesn't support calling this broken. As a former Target employee, I can tell you that a "Price Cut" is not a sale -- it's a new (permanent) lower price. The shelf label is the same because while they'll eventually pull the big tag, the price will be the same. Keep in mind the (usually hourly) kid who pulls the tags is almost never the same as the (management) person who does the planogram*.

Note Target *DOES* place stuff in the ad that's not on sale, but they have specific language/cues for that. For example, click for non-cropped version of the second pic. Along the bottom, you can see a skewed sign with the heading "As Advertised". This means "it's the same price, but this time we put it in the ad."

* http://www.glmshows.com/press/DisplayHandbook/planogram.htm

Posted by: jsp at April 26, 2004 08:30 PM

Reminds me of a store that went out of business a few years ago - discounts of 10, 20, 30, 40% as time went on. Guess how many price stickers were on all the merchandise by the time they were 40% off! Yep, 5 of them: the original price, and the four times they marked them up as the "discount" went up.

Posted by: RB at May 14, 2004 01:44 PM

I work at Target currently and I am on the pricing/planogram team and when an item's price gets cut we place a permant label over the existing label followed by a label holder containing a label that tells you how much the item cost and what the price was cut down to. The label holder allows us to put a price cut balloon on the end in order to draw attention to this item for the guest. We do it this way because after a few weeks the label holder and price cut balloon come down and the permant label with the new price is already in place.

Posted by: Ashley at July 23, 2004 07:08 PM

Yes, but the impression it leaves is one of dishonesty. Therefore, broken.

Posted by: Please stop me at October 5, 2004 08:48 PM

As a Target employee I can tell you that the previous entries are completely true. How does it leave the impression of dishonesty? If you really want to see the old price so badly, pull the plastic away and peel the sticker off the old price, wow... there it is.

Posted by: Travis at June 13, 2005 11:00 AM

the chocolate ration has been raised to 5 grams!

Posted by: Bob at June 25, 2005 01:29 PM

I work at target. This is not deceptive. Price Cut is a permanent price drop, as opposed to Temporary Price Cut which is, well, temporary. When the signing team comes through, they stick a new price label over the old price as well as the plastic sleeved type with Price Cut flag. That way, when some rude guest comes along and somehow manages to knock the sign off and doesn't put it back, the accurate price is still displayed. If you check under the price cut signing, you'll find that the label displaying the new price is just placed on top of the older, higher price.

Posted by: Chris at February 25, 2006 05:36 PM

Actually this is Targets policy on Price Cuts.

Price cuts work like this

The item is originally 19.99.

Then a price cut gets issued and we put the new label then a price cut label. That third label is 19.99 the old price. Price Cuts are permanate and they are made to show our guests that HEY WE JUST DROPPED THE PRICE.

Posted by: John A at March 10, 2006 04:24 AM