consumerist.com — Short bit (unconfirmed) in the Consumerist. Prices at Target start out ending in .99. Price drops will change the last digit, with "4" being the lowest last digit. According to this tip, if you see something that ends in "4", it indicates the lowest price Target will offer for a product.
Jan 8, 2007 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountJan 9, 2007
It seems a lot of stores have this practice. When I worked at CompUSA many years ago, prices ending in "96" were "price matches" (where we shopped a competitor and put our prices one dollar below theirs).We had a "cent" code for Discontinued/Clearance products (I think it was 77 at the time), advertised specials, and most importantly products that had a high margin (meaning, we jacked the price up ... wish I could remember that one).It was a tool for us sales folks, when trying to pin an "add on" to a computer purchase, we'd aim for the surge protector that had the "high margin" code, or the paper, cable or otherwise that had the appropriate code. We might be losing money on the computer, but by the time the add-ons are put in place, we're pulling a small profit from the customer.To this day I take a look at the last two digits of merchandise and get suspicious if they are inconsistent with the rest of the store. Since most stores use "99" cents (or something regular), when that cent number is off it could be a hike or a dip from their normal pricing.
Closed AccountJan 9, 2007
I'm not saying that it's not interesting... It's just... really one of those "wtf?" moments in money-saving history.If I see a price at Target that I don't like, knowing that it's the cheapest Target will go to won't make me buy it. If anything, I'll stop checking Target for when they have a better deal and go online and buy it or something.Then again, it's kind of useful if you see something that you don't urgently need but want to buy at a lower cost: If it doesn't end in a 4, you MIGHT see it at a lower cost, so you might as well wait.
bloodylipJan 9, 2007
@DASHDo you work at Microsoft by any chance?
ryebryeJan 9, 2007
Look at Target's Black Friday sales prices: <a class="user" href="http://bfads.net/store/target">http://bfads.net/store/target</a> - most of them end in 9's or 0's but are much lower than the normal price. This maybe true for general day-to-day items, but it's not true at all that things will "never be lower"... that and the "4" ending just indicates clearance, so it will be continually marked down and still have a 4 at the end of it. This article is inaccurate.
vegangJan 9, 2007
You can't use Black Friday as an example, genius.
lampajooJan 10, 2007
I want some FREE s**t!
sallyvwFeb 6, 2009
Is there a website that you can go to and get all the numbers to stores?