Is it necessary to display high retail prices?

[Cheez]

This is not a flaming thread. And I guess the best place to post this is in the Swee Lee forum, hoping somebody from Swee Lee can answer this question.

It's a well known fact that Swee Lee displays their prices about 30% higher than usual. And when asked how much it cost, the price will usually drop about 30% or so.

My question is: is this still necessary? In the past I can understand the marketing technique - it creates a pseudo-price drop effect when a customer ask the price. But in today's information age, customers do their homework and research back home. The internet is an easy place to look for MRSP of gears and products. We know how much things cost. Putting exhorbitant prices does nothing except giving a negative impression of trying to deceive customers.

An example: I was in Swee Lee yesterday. While looking at the keyboards, I noticed the Roland G-70 Workstation priced a $9045!!!!! That's $3000-4000 higher than the MRSP (and I can get that even for lower price now that USD has dropped). And worse still - the Roland E-80 arranger (one level down from the G-70) commands the same price - $9045!

I understand the practice of Swee Lee. But putting a price tag like that puts me off entirely - so much so that I don't even bother to ask for the actual price and just walked out of the store. I felt as if I was being treated like an ignorant customer.

Is it time for Swee Lee to re-think this? Please note this is not a flaming thread. I'm a regular customer and want Swee Lee to do well.

 

[lypk]

But most tourists don't do their price research before hand.
Same for a lot of other shops in the city where tourists frequent

 

[Cheez]

That may be true. And I know Swee Lee do cater to a lot of overseas customers (eg from India). And yes, some touristic shops do have higher prices to target tourists. But there's a difference between a price tag of a few hundred dollars more than MRSP and a price tag that's $4000 more than the MRSP.

And yes, some tourists may not do their research, but that's going to be a decreasing group. Internet has penerated almost every country in the world. Tourists today bring notebooks unlike the past. Some has smartphones with internet capabilities. With internet access in hotels, hotspots, airport etc, it's not difficult to get info quickly.

 

[lypk]

Hopefully I'm not sidetracking, but I do know of a reputable photography store that sells stuff to locals at 40-50% off the stated price tag. Seems like most locals are informed of such a practice. Not the foreigners though. But locals still flock to that store, cause it's reputable?

I too know of another photography store that has got a really bad name for prices and service, and the way that it does business is that, they'll rather charge really really high to prey on unsuspecting customers, then lose you as a future customer (when people do find out that they got cheated). Seems like spreading their bad name around doesn't bring their shop down, cuz they're still around after all these years, and cuz most of the customers are still tourists. Oh well. We locals should know better.

 

[8fingermadness]

Yeah it's kinda dumb, $4k over MSRP is daylight robbery, but as long as they do not finally charge you that kind of price, then it's not criminal. Still, I think it would make more sense to change all prices to actual retail prices and fix them. Saves the consumer time from asking the salesperson 'how much?' and saves the salesperson time from calculating X% x displayed price.

Just to add, I also want sweelee to do well cos that means better choices for local musicians. But maybe it's time to stop putting up an unfriendly image and change with the times. Better service staff. Better pricing strategies. Innovative promotions. I know sweelee is big but hey, at least start with the service part, then even if the price tag is abit ummmm, you still have a friendly salesman to tell you the final retail price.

If not sweelee will just degrade to 'that big music store that has "50%" sale every year', and lose customers cos of their bad service, weird pricing, during non-sales periods. With an increase in musical instrument-related shops in sg and on the internet (who are increasingly willing to ship to places like sg), it's really high-time for change. I'm not exactly flaming but I think this section on soft is the one with the most threads on bad services and experiences, and that says something.

but that's just an opinion from an ex-customer

 

[lmsm89]

Cheez is right. the things at swee lee is really over-priced. for example, the tama starclassic drumset is $4700 whereas if u buy it online it's only $3100.

 

[soft]

lmsm89, read cheez initial post again. He meant the price tag, not the actually selling price.

Last night, I went for dinner at Central. Then went shop shop with wify. Saw a big big diamond ring keychain. Wify immediately told me if got coupon can have 40% discount. The shopkeeper overheard and told me, "For you, no need coupon."

End up we bought 2. Ha..ha..

* i am stupid shopper mentality

 

[sqoobs]

..........

 

[Cheez]

Actually, I don't expect Swee Lee to reply. It will be a bonus if they do. The representative of this forum may not have the authority to respond as it deals with higher management. But at least, I hope this issue can be brought up to the management. Well, we can at least hope for a change for the better, or a change to keep up with the times.

 

[tc_zen]

i think alot of ppl have same feeling when entering swee lee, they thread u well when u buying something, but most of the time, the shoppers seems like in bad mood. ok, maybe dun talking about the service.
talk about the price
i think they have they own strategy. let say they put the real selling price, what can they to during year end sales? i dun think they still can put "warehouse sales 50% off", if like that, they really let off the stuffs at 50% of retail price."

my feeling is, they super high price tag really scarying me, eventhough we know that got discount. but if ppl offer us a reasonable price, i dun think we still need discount.
just like maybe nike shop, and levis, they seldom discount, but we still buy it, since the price is reasonable, just similar to the online store.