Suzanne O’Connor’s Bargains LA

Deceptive Retail Practices

I am always keeping an eye out for deceptive practices. There are the obvious… bait and switch, loss leaders etc but there are others that really get my goat.

One is where a store calls itself “an outlet” under the guise that it sells products directly from the manufacturer. But the prices are retail. Another is the designer direct… but the prices are retail because no one else sells the product.

But the one that bothers me the most, cause it wastes so much of my time, is when special purchase product is brought into an outlet to fill out the inventory.

A recent visit to a furniture outlet for a higher end furniture store had me leave in frustration. The good product by Pulaski and Bernhardt was all damaged floor samples and the majority of the store was lower end manufacturers brought in to fill out the inventory. Lower end at a lower price is still retail. Price does not guarantee a bargain, the value does. If the real value of a product is higher than the asking price, that’s a bargain.

So I left disappointed. But it is a good example of why you need to keep abreast of quality and manufacturers. Both Pulaski and Bernhardt have a wide range in quality in the many lines they make. So even with those well-known names I would have examined each piece. You can’t always count on a manufacturers reputation.