Is This On Sale Or Regular Price?

Men do this too!

So the other day at work I was fixing up some product and I over heard the following conversation.

Employee: Hi, are you finding everything okay?
Customer: I have a question. Is this on sale or is it just regular price?
Employee: That would be the regular price.
Customer: *Proceeds to place power drill back down slowly*- Oh okay.

Would that customer really buy that power drill if it happened to have a sales sign on it? With  everything else staying the same, including the price the customer was looking at. I have always wondered...

Mattress stores, furniture stores, and outlet malls are always having a sale it seems. How can you forget the crazy dancing cartoon billowing in the wind. The word sale is a trigger, making whatever the product or service becoming more valuable. According to this website, "a sale is the old faithful of marketing words. While a lot of businesses use the word "sale", it has the power to motivate customers. Who doesn't love a good deal?"

There are times where I wonder if a sale item is really on sale. Did those sneakers really drop 50% in price? It appears to me that spending $130 on a pair of Nikes is just way over priced for a pair of shoes. However, if this pair, at the same price of $130 were on sale (↑) from the "original listed price" of $260, then this was such a good sale and buy! I am so guilty of purchasing thing solely because they are on sale. I'm sitting here waiting for the day a Professional Kitchenaid goes on sale. But my point being is if wording such as sale, everything must go, off,  and now are all just specific and strategically used words to trigger consumers into a buying mood?

Because it doesn't really fool me, but then again, it does.

The next time I go to Yellowstone National Park I will try to seek out if I see any sales, promotions, or liquidations that are attracting all the late season tourists. I'm sure there must be something with more and more parts of the park beginning to close. Reflecting back, I can't really think of any sales , so if something comes up I'll report it!