Suzanne O’Connor’s Bargains LA

A Sur La Table Adventure

Don’t believe the advertised sale pricing until you really do some real comparison shopping.

Moaning, complaining retailers are still up to their same old dirty tricks. Stunning in this economy that the big players like Macy’s would have their retail markup so much higher than boutique stores.

Case in point, a shopping trip to find a Cuisinart Fondue set for Valentines Day had a retail price of $59.99 at Sur La Table and a retail of $79.99 at Macy’s. Macy’s had it on sale at $59.99…, which, as it turns out is the real retail price. So even in a downtrodden economy with so many stores slashing prices, this big retailer is still marking up too high only to mark it down and actually sell it a retail. They had dozens of them on the shelves.

This same fondue set was at IKitchen.com for $36, GiantSavings.com had it at $39
And Amazon had it at $49.

We didn’t buy it at Macys to be sure. In fact we didn’t buy that model at all. Instead we ended up with a top of the line set from Sur La Table at a very high retail point of $159.

When we went into Sur La Table, our help there was an actual chef. He showed us the finer points of the several models they carried. Young and super friendly, he spent a lot of time with us. We learned more about cookware usage and how better quality actually saves you more money by sharing lots of money saving tips and cooking tidbits with us. The difference was knowledgeable, friendly service.

Honest, helpful retailing is still out there. Sur La table is one place that still practices that. They are still full retail, but since they are having a 20%-40% off sale, you may find something terrific, for less and get some great service as well.

For Valentine’s Day we were planning a dinner at The Melting Pot. Since we are watching after one of our daughters friends it would be a dinner for 4 which would run upwards of 200 dollars. We ended up buying the high quality set which will last us forever, invited even more of her friends over and had a great fondue party for eight. It ended up being our Valentines Day treat to ourselves. I do pay retail occasionally. This was one of those rare occasions.