Honestly I feel that’s just a way to introduce horrendously high prices in their stores so when people walk past them, they notice it and then the 2000$ TV isn’t looking that expensive anymore in comparison.
This is exactly why they do it. It’s a very old sales technique: show them something wildly outside their price range so that they are more open to items that are just a little above what they wanted to spend.
I don’t think a large corporation like costco is doing anything if that thing doesn’t yield some kind of return. Even the choice of lighting in the store and choice if music is selected to subconsciously affect your purchase behavior.
Employee owned co-ops don’t have much of a marketing R&D or lighting budget, and no Costco warehouse I’ve been to has music (or even a PA system, come to think of it).
Warehouse management’s sales tactics tend to be unsophisticated bordering on obsolete compared to traditional retail.
For example…
OP’s indiscriminate use of the x99.99 formula dilutes its effectiveness throughout the warehouse. This is especially true for big ticket items.
Too many 9s in the sticker also makes customers doubt they are receiving any kind of wholesale bargain, if only because they begin to envision increasingly large arbitrary markup hidden in that portion of the price.
ETA: but you’re right that one of the original sales dynamics relied on in Costco’s warehouse model is placing higher ticket and luxury items by the entrance such that customers must walk past them to get to what they actually came for. That trick is old but still works.
This is a “fun attraction” that kids under 12 will sense from the other end of the store, make a beeline towards, and break within 8 seconds of touching it
Honestly I feel that’s just a way to introduce horrendously high prices in their stores so when people walk past them, they notice it and then the 2000$ TV isn’t looking that expensive anymore in comparison.
This is exactly why they do it. It’s a very old sales technique: show them something wildly outside their price range so that they are more open to items that are just a little above what they wanted to spend.
Not everything is a jedi mind trick unless ‘providing a fun attraction’’ is a trick.
I don’t think a large corporation like costco is doing anything if that thing doesn’t yield some kind of return. Even the choice of lighting in the store and choice if music is selected to subconsciously affect your purchase behavior.
Employee owned co-ops don’t have much of a marketing R&D or lighting budget, and no Costco warehouse I’ve been to has music (or even a PA system, come to think of it).
Warehouse management’s sales tactics tend to be unsophisticated bordering on obsolete compared to traditional retail.
For example…
OP’s indiscriminate use of the x99.99 formula dilutes its effectiveness throughout the warehouse. This is especially true for big ticket items.
Too many 9s in the sticker also makes customers doubt they are receiving any kind of wholesale bargain, if only because they begin to envision increasingly large arbitrary markup hidden in that portion of the price.
ETA: but you’re right that one of the original sales dynamics relied on in Costco’s warehouse model is placing higher ticket and luxury items by the entrance such that customers must walk past them to get to what they actually came for. That trick is old but still works.
This is a “fun attraction” that kids under 12 will sense from the other end of the store, make a beeline towards, and break within 8 seconds of touching it