We've said it before, and we'll say it again: It pays to shop around.
But here's a new reason I recently stumbled on while in one of my favorite shopping neighborhoods in the Chelsea section of New York.
After checking out a sale at Zara, I zeroed in on this pretty cotton floral skirt marked down to $39 from $79. Forty dollars off! I had to have it.
A week later, I happened to dart into another Zara store on Fifth Avenue to check out their sales goodies in my size, and I spotted my bargain skirt—but it was no bargain. This location was selling the yummy orange and yellow frock at its original $79 price.
The difference wasn't a mistake. It's a new retail strategy in which stores are tailoring their discounts to local demand. I guess on tony Fifth Avenue, they figured they could ask for and get the $79 for the skirt that was do deeply discounted in the funkier downtown neighborhood, only 40 blocks away.
On further investigation, I found a recent National Retail Federation survey that said that 21 percent of retailers are using localized markdowns, including The Gap, Banana Republic, Macy's, Home Depot, and Walmart.
So if you're looking for bargains at these and other chain stores, the discounts, even on the same item, could be a lot juicier in another ZIP code across town. So shop around!
gman863
01:48:51 AM on Tue Aug 11 2009
This has been going on for years. Sometimes it's based on the competition (or lack of it) in a given neighborhood or area.
If a grocery store is in a lower income area (customers who walk or take the bus versus driving) or a rural market (little if any competition) they have a captive audience. As such, they can get away with charging more than in an area with one or more rivals a stone's throw away.
If you shop in a neighborhood where two or more stores are fighting it out within a few blocks of each other (Kroger versus H-E-B or Wal-Mart versus Super Target), each chain sharpens its pencils more and the prices are usually the lowest.