It’s a maul world, after all
Dear Johnny,
In response to Trevor Johnson (Johnny Neihu’s Mailbag, Sept. 13, page 8), I have to say I’ve seen the exact same tactic of duping customers in Toronto, but without the employees outside the store screaming into megaphones.
For instance, supermarkets do it all the time. When they print flyers and posters advertising sales, they list the original prices of objects as higher than they actually are to make it seem as if the discount is so much bigger. I’ve also seen big department stores do it too.
For example, a CD might normally sell for C$20. The store then raises it to C$23, places it on sale at C$18 and thus claims there is a C$5 discount.
I just wanted to let people know that this devious type of advertising isn’t confined to Taiwan.
HILTON YIP
Johnny replies: Actually, if we ever discover intelligent life away from the Earth, I expect that petty scamming will be a prominent part of that civilization, too. You know the deal: Discounted spark plugs for interstellar craft never reflect cost when you buy them from stores on outer moons.
Then again, there’s been a lot of Taiwanese business migration to Canada of late. Who owns the stores, eh? Eh?
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