Re: Nibble DVD

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <djlerm$8jn$1@rumours.uwaterloo.ca>,
Tim Haynes  <timhaynes@alumni.NO.SPAM.PLEASE.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:

> Paul Schlyter wrote:
>> In article <2X87f.18528$vw6.7316@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>,
>> BluPhoenyx  <bluphoenyx-@-earthlink.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>>Mike reduced the dvd price to $89.95. A much better price for you
>>>guys who didn't want to pay the original cost.
>> 
>> 
>> To call it "much" better is a clear overstatement, but OK, it's
>> somewhat better.  But not enough IMO.  When it reaches $25-$30 I'll
>> bite, but not before.  I'm patient - I can wait a few years or more.
>> Or it may never happen -- then I'll accept that and do without it.
> 
> Wow, some people are never happy!

I don't belong to those people -- I'm happy about a lot of things.

> The next time your local Wal-Mart,

Sorry, but there's no Wal-Mart anywhere near here.... you see,
Wal-Mart is a US store chain, and I live in Europe...

> has a sale, maybe you should picket it and complain about their obvious 
> marketing ploy where they sell something for $X but when it doesn't 
> sell, they lower their price to $X-1.

If I would do that I'd have to spend all my free time doing it, and
it's just not worth it.  Instead I do the opposite from time to time:
whenever someone sets a price at X rather than X-1, I tell them I
think it's a good thing.  To me it signals honesty and no desire to
try to cheat the customer.

Pricing is not the only way big store chains try to make people spend
more money in their stores.  It's also about where they put their
stuff on display in the store.  Consider your food store for instance
- suppose you went there to buy just a few necessary things, such as
milk, bread, and maybe something for dinner.  For you it would be
very convenient if these items could be picked up just inside the
cashier so you could shop quickly, right?  But in real life you'll
have to walk through all of the store to get these items.  Milk is in
one far corner of the store, bread in another far corner, and your
dinner food in some third far corner.  And you'll pass displays of a
lot of other, less necessary items, on your way to get what you want.
A lot of people fall for this and end up buying perhaps two to three
times as much as they originally planned.  Right inside the cashier
you'll often find candy, placed within easy reach of the kids who
then beg their parents for candy while waiting in line at the
cashier....

> This is the capitalist marketplace, it happens all the time.

Indeed .... but if you don't want to become a helpless victim for the
capitalists, you can at least learn some of their tricks and avoid
them.

And it's not a capitalist dictatorship though, is it?  We do have
freedom of speech, right?  So everyone has the right to voice
their opinion about it, right?

> Complaining about it seems a bit absurd, especially since Mike is 
> probably doing it in response to the (vocal minority) here who 
> complained about the higher price, and not because he's trying to 
> implement some weird stepwise price reduction to bleed us all dry.

:-) .... you're here really claiming that Mike, in response to those who
complained about the higher price, lowered the price from $90 to $89.95.
Apart from not being true, isn't that claim also a bit absurd?

> Honestly, complaining about what Mike does about ANYTHING is a bit like 
> looking a gift horse in the mouth.  He did so much for the A2 community 
> before, during, and after Nibble's long run that, as far as I am 
> concerned, he can do whatever he wants with whatever he has,

Of course!  Mike, as well as everybody else, has the right to do whatever
they want with what they have which is theirs.  I've never denied him
that right.

> and none of us have any right to whine about it.

May I humbly remind you about the freedom of speech all of us also
have.  Yes, this gives anyone the right to whine about anything they
want.  Others may dislike it, but they cannot deny anyone the right to
do it.

> Think of the hours (days, weeks?!) of joy Nibble gave you!

In my case it was hours to days.  I quit subscribing to it quite soon,
and switched to other magazines.

> And now think about your whining!  Feel silly?  I would.

I don't think so ... but I am amused over your reaction.

Anyway, enough about this.  Mike has the right to put any price he
wants on that DVD, and everyone else has the right to decide whether
they want to buy it or not.  And all of us have the right to voice
their opinion about anything.  And everyone has the full right to
freely like or dislike what others say.  Fair enough?

 
>> Note the cheap and all too common psychological trick Wal-mart uses when
>> they set the price.  Now it's not $90, it's $89.95 -- that's just a
>> 5 cents difference, but it makes the first digit being an 8 rather
>> than a 9.  A gullible customer will then perceive the price
>> difference as much larger than 5 cents.
> 
> I fixed your typos.

I hope you're proud of yourself....  :-)
 
> Tim

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