The "Is there a name for this?" thread

maninahat

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Nov 8, 2007
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As the thread name indicates, this is a thread for asking if there is a name for a particular thing, and for other people to tell you if there is one. Sometimes a google search just won't cut it.

For instance, is there a name for that trick retailers use, where they make a new product extremely expensive on purpose just so that they can stick it on "sale" at a massive discount, which really only reduces it to a more reasonable yet still high price?

E.g. a dress that had a price tag of $1200, but is put on sale for $250 - even though $250 is a lot of money for a dress, people reason to themselves that this is an amazing deal because the dress used to sell for much higher. If the dress was originally sold at a standard of $250, no where near as many people would want to buy it because they haven't been promised by a reference-price that it is supposedly worth much more. Another example is game sales, with devs deliberately setting the initial price as very high just so that when an inevitable Steam 40-60% discount comes along (where most people do their most spending), it is still basically being sold at the standard game retail price.
 

Baffle

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Oct 22, 2016
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It's usually just called lying. Or high-low pricing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High%E2%80%93low_pricing
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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I just know it as fake or illusory discounting. Peddling something by comparing it to an inflated "original" price or labeling something as "on sale" even though it's going for the regular price.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Jun 5, 2013
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Baffle2 said:
It's usually just called lying. Or high-low pricing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High%E2%80%93low_pricing
Yeah lying. Or false advertising. Steam developers do this all the time before sales. Lets say a game cost $4.99, and tomorrow starts a 50% off sale. At 11:59 they'll change the price to $10, so a sale price is back to $4.99, but suddenly its a great deal!

The grocery stores here in STL do it all the time. The price of meat at the deli suddenly goes up over night, just in time for a sale.
 

RobertEHouse

Former Mad Man
Mar 29, 2012
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The word is Mark Up

A mark up price is something you usually never know about in the first place, you are always paying a Marked up price.

Here is one example :

Around 2000, a blank CD used to cost around five cents to manufacture this was the same with game discs . DVD's used to be around eight but that price has changed. Blue Rays are under licence so those disks cost around twelve a pop.

Each disk was made in either four or five major manufacture plants usually in China or elsewhere.
Those blank CDs would then be placed in packages under several names like SONY , or SAMSUNG.Again each disk was made by the same third party manufacture and not by SONY or SAMSUNG but under contract. Now with those nicely printed company names on them, those five cent blank CDs in a pack of five are now Marked up. Meaning that now each disk no longer will cost the consumer five cents to buy but now cost thirteen dollars instead. This is excluding shipping from the plants as they are factored in prior


That is one type of Mark up , another would be demand such like the PS move controllers which found a increase in price since PSVRs introduction. Same product , same parts but because of demand the price is inflated on purpose.

Mark ups are everywhere with everything you buy, the only way you normally find about about them is if someone charges way to much at the wrong time and people pay attention. Case in point with sales of certain games on steam where the developers try to hide changing the price points during a sale.

Lastly , never believe the "recommended Manufacture price" on anything because it's all made up .
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Is there a name for when two people are walking past each other and they both try to pass on the same side and get in each other's way, so then they both switch to the other side at the same time and end up still in each other's way? So they do an awkward mirrored shuffle until someone finally picks a side and sticks with it.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

Alleged Feather-Rustler
Jun 5, 2013
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Zhukov said:
Is there a name for when two people are walking past each other and they both try to pass on the same side and get in each other's way, so then they both switch to the other side at the same time and end up still in each other's way? So they do an awkward mirrored shuffle until someone finally picks a side and sticks with it.
Awkward?
"Hehe, sorry, please go ahead. Oh! Thank you! Have a nice day!"
 

Frezzato

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Oct 17, 2012
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There's a marketing term I can't remember exactly. It sounded something like 'shaking the tree'.

It usually involves games or movies on disc, where a store will start off at a normal price, say $25 for a new Blu-ray release. Then, after a period where they notice that sales have declined, they'll drop the price incrementally, finally to a point where the ultimate "low" price is reached.

It's a nice concept, where a store will access all sections of a potential demographic; the hardcore market will pay full price, just to have something on release day. Each follow-up segment is just another part of the population who is waiting for the right price.

Me, I'm a cheapskate, always one of the last ones to buy something.

Anyway, anyone know what that strategy is called? I know it's probably called 'price skimming', I'm just looking for the cooler sounding terminology.
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

Warning! Contains bananas!
Jun 21, 2009
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Frezzato said:
Anyway, anyone know what that strategy is called? I know it's probably called 'price skimming', I'm just looking for the cooler sounding terminology.
I've sometimes heard it referred to as 'riding down the demand curve'.
 

Baffle

Elite Member
Oct 22, 2016
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Zhukov said:
Is there a name for when two people are walking past each other and they both try to pass on the same side and get in each other's way, so then they both switch to the other side at the same time and end up still in each other's way? So they do an awkward mirrored shuffle until someone finally picks a side and sticks with it.
Sidewalk shuffle?
 
Mar 30, 2010
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Baffle2 said:
Zhukov said:
Is there a name for when two people are walking past each other and they both try to pass on the same side and get in each other's way, so then they both switch to the other side at the same time and end up still in each other's way? So they do an awkward mirrored shuffle until someone finally picks a side and sticks with it.
Sidewalk shuffle?
When both oncoming parties are equally inclined to give the other the right of way this is what is known as 'PDL', or Pedestrian Deference Loop.