Why Presidents' Day Sales are the Ultimate Racket
Here’s an ironic thought: Presidents' Day, the day when we honor Presidents like Abraham “Honest Abe” Lincoln and George “I cannot tell a lie” Washington, is actually chock full of sales that use dishonest tactics. Crazy, isn’t it? But it's true. In February, when retailers often have sales on home goods including furniture, some retailers do some pretty shady stuff that calls the whole notion of a “sale” into question.
Consider the following.
What Goes Down Must First Go Up
In some cases, retailers will actually keep their “normal” retail prices so high that, when they do offer a sale on Presidents' Day weekend, it will seem to be a good deal. So if you are in the market for a new couch or candelabra, chances are you will pay the usual amount instead of getting some killer deal. To avoid falling for this racket, spend some time doing some serious comparison shopping. Focus on the prices — whether they claim to be a great sale or not — and if you want to keep tabs on the prices more easily, snap a photo of the price tag with your trusty smartphone or go old school and jot it down in a notebook (that way you can feel like a detective from the movies).
When you can compare the prices of furniture in an “apples to apples” way and don't focus so much on the sale prices, you should quickly and accurately see the truth to their so-called sale prices.
One bonus tip: Be extra careful if the Presidents' Day sale is being held in conjunction with a liquidation blowout; one major retailer was caught artificially raising prices before launching their liquidation sale.
When Is a Sale Not a Sale? When It’s All Year!
Once you do your comparison shopping and are aware of which stores actually offer lower prices on their furniture and other goods, you may actually score a better deal during other times of the year during a true sale. But before you bust out your shiny credit card and say “I’ll take it!” to that item that’s 40 percent off, keep a cool head and compare its sale price to other retailers.
You might find that some retailers keep products on perennial “sales” — sometimes as much as 44 weeks out of the year. These misleadingly not-so-low prices may not be any better than a regular price somewhere else, so before you buy anything, take out your phone and do some research to see if it’s really a decent, and honest, sale price.
Free Shipping Mysteriously Appears
Some retailers will suddenly offer free shipping during holiday weekends, especially online ones and on products like mattresses. To avoid falling for this, be aware of what a store will typically offer regarding shipping and then be wary of buying anything from a retailer that may want to distract you from their "sale" prices with a limited-time perk. The same is true for other goodies like free haul aways of old products, free assembly and free return shipping.
At Jerome’s, George and Abe Would Be Proud
Since the day we opened our doors, we have been devoted to offering fair, honest and affordable prices on our furniture. When you compare some other retailers’ “sale” prices with our everyday values, you will see that Jerome’s is still priced lower. We don’t play games with our customers and we don’t inflate costs prior to a sale only to lower them back down, and you don’t have to wait for holiday weekends to roll around to get a better deal at Jerome’s — we are proud to offer low pricing each and every day. We value and respect our customers too much to do this — and we are quite certain that Washington and Lincoln would agree with us.