YSK: Many price drops aren't what they seem...
news.ufl.edu
Why YSK: Online platforms, particularly some very prominent offenders, may artificially spike prices before creating "discounts". Whether this is intentional or the result of third party sellers fighting amongst themselves, I cannot say. Either way, don't blindly purchase something because of a deal (camelcamelcamel is great to see price history if you just care about Amazon). Besides, if your sole motivation to purchase something is based on a discount, you might be better off cutting consumption instead.
Source: I run fetchnotifs. While checking the logs this morning, I was scared to death I deployed a bug to production—Nope, it's just that day of the year.
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I think it's similar in Germany. At the very least, it's illegal to falsely claim price reduction by raising prices beforehand (I think they still do it, but over longer periods).
Actually, you don't even need to change the price to get customers to buy something "on sale". The supermarket I've worked in for a couple of years regularily advertised a certain brand of soft ice cream this way (not going to say any names here). "Only 2,99€ this week" (without comparing that price to anything in particular) and people bought that stuff en masse, even tho that was the exact same price as the week before, and the same price again after the "sale". The only thing that changed during the "sale" week was the color of the price tag.
Laws regarding these types of advertising only work if customers actually compare prices, and most just don't do that.
Yeah, I've noticed such offers as well. Idk, is it just me or does it feel quite close to Täuschung?
It is definitely shady, but allegedly legal as long as you don't claim that the former price was higher. The advertisement itself "just" states what the current price is, which is not a lie.
Still totally scummy IMHO.