New things are expensive. Imagine if someone anonymously paid
the owner of a shop x amount to reduce the price of an item by x amount, so that a
future customer can pay the reduced amount and get that particular item for
less. The person who made this charitable donation gives up all ownership
rights to the item in perpetuity (according to a contract, perhaps). Example:
There is a book that costs $30 but that’s just a bit too much for the budget at
the moment. You come back a week later and a sticker declares the price to be
$10 less, the new price is $20, which is somewhat better than $30, and more
attractive to the wallet. Perhaps there’s an AB on the sticker so that you know
someone made this purchase possible for you. But you don’t really need
stickers, the price will be reduced – hooray!
What prevents the owner from cheating? He could set artificial high prices when he knows an Assistor is approaching and he could pocket the odd ten or twenty before marking-down the goods for sale.
ReplyDeleteHumans. Bah!
BTW - Digging your "Daft Ideas" (TM) series. Keep it going.
ReplyDeleteNothing prevents the owner from cheating except the owner himself.
ReplyDeleteSome will be honest, some dishonest. If the price seems even higher to you than normal prior to reduction then this could indicate a dishonest fellow.