Clothing and furniture are the most egregious in this regard.

So many stores with "everything 30% off!" signs out front that have been in the sun so long they're cracked and fading.

I’ve found Kohl’s to be a great example of this. If you happen to find something that isn’t 30, 40% off, just try again next week.

Was looking for this comment! I was at Kohl's with my wife and I saw the sticker price and was ready to leave, and she said, "oh, that's not the price you'll pay, everything has a discount." I don't like that game and I've not gone back.

I have to admit the Kohl's 'sale price' thing totally worked on me. I bought a piece of luggage that was marked down from around $300 to around $150. I felt very good about having acquired such a fine item for half price. Later I wondered if I would have felt as good paying $150 without thinking it was 'worth' $300. Of course I would not have.

This is exactly what my dad said about Sears in the 80s and 90s

I don't think my mother has ever paid full price at Macy's.

At the stores that use paper pricetags still, before you buy anything expensive, just rifle through the other pieces of paper behind the pricetags.

Sure, today it says "30% off". Behind, though, are pages for 50% off, 40% off, and 65% off

Then you know it isn't really on sale now.

My general rule for shopping is that the real price of an item is the lowest price that it routinely goes "on sale" for.

Some examples (in my area):

- The real price of a can of Coke at my grocery store is $.25/can or $3.00/12pk

- The real price of Aerie underwear is $3.50/pair.

- The real price of KitchenAid stand mixers is $189.99

I do that mentally as well, but I generally ignore the word “sale”, and just focus on the most frequent low price.

Around a decade ago I regularly bought a particular food product for $10.99. Then one week it was 13.99. The following week it was “on sale” for 11.99. Then it went up to 12.99 for a few weeks before going back to 10.99. It was eye opening and I also learned to stock certain products.

This won't work for loss leader discount though.

> will avoid buying things when they're not discounted.

A UK panel show called Mock the Week had a segment where panelists were asked to come up with ads that never made it to air. One panelist simply said "the DHS sale has ended". DHS (sofa retailer) is so renowned here for its perpetual sale that at this point they simply can't not have a "sale" on, as it'd confuse customers.

the 'real' price has and will always be the price you are paying.