A few details on Target's "Low Price". What that means is that Target is going to wait and see how other stores will set their prices and Target will set theirs appropriately, whether it's the same, lower or slightly higher. This also sometimes means that individual stores can set their prices lower if needed.
So "Low Price" is not a guarantee of having the lowest price, it's just a generic term for "we aren't printing our prices just yet".Actually, what you said describes Wal-Mart to a "T".
Target...um, no.
Their price is set in advance. However, their prices are often set below "MAP", which is short for "Minimum Advertised Price". Here's the logic:
The agreements between the retailers and the studios are that "we, the studios, will pay you hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions or tens of millions) of dollars per year in 'co-op advertising' (we help you pay for your ads), but in return you must do a few things for us: honor street dates is one of them, honor MAP is another".
"Honoring MAP" does NOT mean you CAN'T *sell* something for BELOW the MAP price. It just means you can't *advertise* that price. If you do, then the studio can feel free to withhold whatever portion of the co-op advertising they feel is a proper "punishment". It's all quiet and behind the scenes. But it cuts into a retailer's revenue.
Often a retailer will decide to advertise the too-low price anyway, because they feel the increased revenue of getting butts in the store will offset the decreased revenue of a studio that takes away co-op dollars. IF the studio even pays attention to it, AND remembers to "punish" them. Which, they usually do...the studios want to save money, too.
But most times (95%+) the retailer will avoid losing out on those dollars by simply saying in their ads "low price" or "hot price" or whatever. Yes, it gives them room to manuever if a competitor goes for less. But that's more Wal-Mart's style, not Target's. They decide on a killer price right off the bat, and stick to it. They just don't say what it is, so they can get YOUR money AND the studio's money and have it both ways!
Here's the "code": the price of the "low price"/"hot price" item TENDS to be (not always is) the price of the item it is adjacent to in the ad. Of course, this doesn't work if there is nothing it's adjacent to, like in this week's Target ad!Oh, and retailers have caught on to the fact that we've caught on to this, so they are purposely screwing that up so that guys like me "can't tell". I've got other ways, though! :wink:
Most digital cable companies and all of the satellite co's offer BBC America which shows select British programming 24 hours a day. In addition, most public television stations show some British sitcoms (called Britcoms) and other programming.Coupling said:
