I do some serious online shopping every month. One thing that I have learned is not to buy anything that is not on discount, unless I really need it, and unless I really need it now.

So, I see something, and I wait for it to go on discount, and once it does, I wait for it to go on discount the second time (maybe the second time it’ll be cheaper), and, if it’s cheaper on the second time, then maybe I wait for a third round of discounts, or I would just buy it. If it’s not cheaper on the second discount, then I will wait for a discount similar to the first discount, then I will buy it.

I’m sure that there are many people who are like me, the thing is, when you see an item on discount, you automatically think that its real price is the discounted price, and not the original ticker price. The more discounts an item receives, the less value that item will have from the customer’s perspective.

Of course, there are discounts and discounts. For example, car manufacturers make some discounts around September on the current year’s models to get rid of their old inventory and make place for the new inventory. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about selling some furniture with a ticker price of $2,000 at $1,000, because of a discount. I’m talking about selling hotel stays at 70% off.

I’m not personally annoyed by discounts, in fact, I love them and I use them to my advantage. But I think marketing has to come up with a better alternative to discounts, since most people no longer buy anything at full price, and those who do, are one of the following: 1) They are suckers, 2) They’re not paying for the items they’re purchasing (most likely their company is paying), 3) They need the items they are buying at full price immediately.

If we know that everything will be on discount at some point of time, then there is no point of having a discount at all.

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