My husband, Douglas, is frugal. That is a great way of saying that he is cheap. He will not pay full price for anything, even, to my utter embarrassment, haggling with people at garage sales! So, it is no surprise that he loves a sale.
The problem is that he buys so many things on sale that he will never use. It is the thrill of thinking that he has gotten a good deal that seems to bring him much joy.
There are so many items in the basement that I have no idea what we are to do with them. When I ask why he bought them, he responds, “They were on sale!”
I try to explain my position. I say, “Honey, if you don’t use the things you buy, it is not a sale. It is a waste of money, and you have not actually gotten a deal. The seller has simply gotten rid of the merchandise.”
But, he is not alone! This is a phenomenon in America, where just the word, S-A-L-E, appears enough to get people out of the house and their money out of their wallets. It doesn’t matter that they don’t know what the original price was or how much it cost to produce the item.
With that information, you can know if it is a real sale, or if marketers are playing on our emotions. But you cannot find that information anywhere! Smart on the part of the marketers!
For me, if you can sell the storage cubes for $10 on sale, then why were they $25 in the first place? And because merchants are in business to make a profit, it is obvious to me that the “sale” price must allow them a good markup, or why even offer it, just to take a loss?
Yes, I admit that I have become quite cynical, and even a “going-out-of-business sale” is suspect to me, especially when that same store has been leaving for nearly two years. Are those items really on sale, or does the owner know how to get that one sucker born every minute to come in and think that they have made a killing? I think it’s the latter?
Written for Tale Weaver #243 from Mindloveisery’s Menagerie. Write a story on what “For Sale” means to you. Daily Addictions prompt is Cube.
Help from Heaven 
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