Carragee Consulting

I recently had to buy some new clothes for work. If you know me, you know I’d rather be buying a new pair of climbing shoes than black dress slacks and collared shirts, but it had to be done. I, of course left that task to the last minute, and so decided to shop only at two stores in my neighborhood rather than find deals online.
At one of the stores, with the help of a matronly sales person I actually managed to find several items which fit and would classify as official formal office clothes. I had planned to buy these things regardless of their price because I was unwilling to try things on at a third store. The sales woman talked me into opening a store card to get a 20% discount on my purchase.

The advertising for these cards is always kind of humorous in that it tries to make the idea of using credit to make a purchase seem like something only the elite can do.  It’s the classic Amex, exclusivity appeal with a few extra frills like free tailoring if they know they’ve fully ripped you off for a full price item.

Now, up to this point in the story, nothing interesting has occurred from a pricing perspective, right? Actually, I learned that this is a new reason for administering discounts to customers: Ego.

The stated store policy is to provide a 10% discount on all purchases to anyone on the day that they open their credit card. The sales woman who had dutifully gotten me to open the credit card informed me “I can give you a nice discount on this purchase. I’m the only one in the store with the authority to give you a 20% discount when you apply for our card.” For some reason she needed me to know that she was not only the senior person in the store according to her age, but also to her rank visa-vie her discounting authority.

So there you have it. I have another round of boring business clothes I hope not to have to replace for the next 5-8 years and a credit card I need to cancel as soon as I receive the first bill.

Image Credit: http://www.traistercreative.com/brooks-brothers-ad-by-jeff-traister/