3 On Your Side: Are Stores Offering Never-Ending Sales?
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Have you ever noticed that certain stores are constantly running sales? While it's great to save money, one consumer group says that some big name retailers are using deceptive practices to get customers to buy. In fact as 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan finds, it's like having a sale that never ends.
From blenders to bedding, lawn mowers to luggage, everywhere you look these days it's seems a store is holding a sale.
At Justice, the girl's clothing store, 40%-off signs are often the norm. But it's also got them in hot water. A federal lawsuit claims the discounts never end, and possibly violate consumer protection laws.
When we went shopping with our undercover cameras we found never-ending sales happening elsewhere too. At Sears a KitchenAid mixer looked to be a deal. It listed a regular price of $419.95. But it was on sale every time we checked, 25 out of 25 days! Another product, a Craftsman lawnmower, was only offered at full price for one day - it was on sale 24 out of 25 days. And a 5-piece luggage set was on sale 21 of 25 days at Sears.
"It's really kind of a permanent sale at Sears," says Kevin Brassler, Executive Editor of Delaware Valley Consumers' Checkbook. He believes this sort of pricing is intentional and deceptive. According to Brassler, "They are misleading their customers into thinking 'oh that's a special price for me today, I better jump on this, I better not wait, I better not compare prices."
And it's not just happening at Sears. Brassler says, "Sears, Kohl's and to a certain extent Macy's, just almost always or always have their stuff on sale."
For nine months Checkbook tracked online prices once a week and found that "regular prices", were rarely charged. Brassler says, "I think they are using deceptive advertising practices." You can review Checkbook's findings at http://www.checkbook.org/salefail/
At Macy's we found Levi's 501 jeans that were offered at full price only for one day out of 25. The rest of the time they were on sale or part of a buy-one get-one promotion. We also found a mixer that was on sale 80% of the days we checked.
Macy's told us they strive to comply with all laws and regulations, and prices may vary within the course of a week.
We found that prices could vary within the course of a week at Kohl's too. We kept track of pricing on Vera Wang bedspreads and found them to be on sale for 25 days straight. The queen size retail price was listed as $169.99. The sale prices bounced around depending on the day. One day it was $76.49, the next day it was $118.99, the next it dropped down again to $101.99.
So what's the moral of the story? According to Brassler, "Never assume that a sales price is a good price, it doesn't matter if it says 75 % off, don't assume a sale is a good sale unless you've done some shopping around."
Sears told 3 On Your Side that it disagrees with any suggestion that its pricing is misleading or deceptive. While Sears wouldn't discuss details of their pricing strategy, they told us that they comply with the law.
When Kohl's was contacted for a comment, we never heard back from them.
By the way, earlier this year, Justice settled a class action lawsuit in Ohio. It gave Ohio shoppers, who felt wronged, a $12 rebate or, ironically, a 40% off coupon.