Attila wrote
He quickly calculated that he could slash that price by 7000 odd rands !!!???? ? , so you do the math.... a quick 40% discount !!????
I can guarantee you that their cost is lower than usual on that item for some reason. Sometimes a guitar is bought at one one price, but then the price increases as new stock arrives at higher prices. Ticket price will always be at the retail price, but when they look at the cost, they get the original, lower cost price, so there is more wiggle room to discount. Also if the shop is the importer, they have two sets of profit, each with wiggle room. They may also have bought in bulk and got a better discount, bringing the cost down.
They ticket at the retail rather than the discounted price, because people always ask for discount anyway (so it's kind of like a restaurant not using salt) and discounts vary. In sales they teach you about perceived value - and if you are shown something and know the RRP and are then given the discounted price, you value it at the higher price. If they only give you the lower, discounted price, that's the value of the item that you ascribe to in your mind.
Theoretically, an unknown customer should get 10% discount, a "pro" musician 15% and a studio 25%. This all goes out of the window with some sales people who in an effort to get sales discount to the maximum.
Lately a lot of high tech imports have higher costs than usual (or less discount, depending on how you look at it), so the discount may be lower or it may be stickered at the "Nett price" (a phrase I hate, 'cos it means I pay the same price as everyone else.
