Every morning when I get up, I’m greeted by lost of ads on my iPhone and computer, touting a sale, actually it’s the sale of the day. There’s Best Buy, B&H Photo, located in New York City, Diver’s Direct, located in Florida, probably the only one I look at, most of the time. Of course, I’m barraged by all the giant retail stores.
I’ve spent most of my working career in advertising, and there was a time when a retail store ran a sale, it actually meant something. Then it seemed that there was a race to out SALE the other guy. So, instead of having major sales at logical intervals, Back to School, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Presidents Day, Easter, Memorial Day, and Independence Day, they started to have minor sales in between, and then it became a constant sale, and the consumer started to believe in sales less and less.
To make matters worse, entire stores were created, where everything was on sale every day of the week. In the beginning it was fun for the ordinary consumer. All those mailings, all those products on sale. I imagine, people spent hours comparing the sales and the products.
Then the stores, and the manufactures of the products got smart. Instead of competing for sales of the exact same product, stores wanted an exclusive for the same product, but a different version, or style. For instance, I bought my HP dot matrix printer from Walmart. No other store sells that exact printer, and consequently the only place I can buy the ink for that printer is Walmart. The same thing happened when I bought my HP laser printer from Best Buy. So now, when I need an ink cartridge, at $100 per color, I have to go to Best Buy.
I know what you’re saying, what’s that got to do with membership. I was referring to Barnes & Noble, one of the last major brick and mortar book stores left. I’ve been a member, it seems for decades. The yearly membership cost is $25, and I would get 10% off what I purchased. Besides that, I would receive in the mail, special coupons, allowing me to get an additional 20% on one item, or an additional percentage of the total purchase. I think they came quarterly, and there was an expiration date on the coupon. I would covet those coupons, going to the bookstore, trying to figure out what to buy, a book, a video, and trying to get the most out of the sale. For all the years I was a member, I always looked forward to those sales, and I always used the coupons to buy something. Then all of a sudden, and it’s recent, it all stopped. Now I get on my iPhone, or computer every day, an ad from Barnes & Noble, about the sale going on, and what my discount could be.
Sorry, it’s not the same, and I just trash the message with all the others.
