I recently met up with a friend that I haven’t seen for a while. We greeted, asked how things were with our families and talked about what happened in our lives since the last time we saw each other. He told me he was refurbishing his house. He wanted to buy furniture and carpet his house. Apparently, he went shopping with his family looking for a bargain, like everyone else. They received quotes from two companies- one being a nationwide chain of shops and the other a small family-run business.
The chain quoted them thousands of pounds for the job, which, he told me, left the whole family in shock, as they couldn’t afford such a high price. When the salesman heard that, he dropped the price by a whole thousand pounds.
My friend said his children wanted to keep on looking for a better offer and that’s how they came to find the family business. This company gave them a quote of a whopping thousand pounds less than the chain. He believes the quality of the carpet was much higher, as well. The chain, competing for his custom, slashed the price even further, reaching 50% of the original quoted price.
At this point, my friend told me, he became confused and started asking himself some serious questions. How much can such a company gain as marginal profit from consumers, if it slashes prices by 50% and it still makes money?!
I began to see that this is the case for everything, not just carpets: furniture, clothes, appliances, technology etc. My friend was right: an independent body (watchdog) should ensure profits are fair in these times of economic burden.
PS: While I was writing this, my friend called and told me the chain dropped its price up to 80% of the original asking price.
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