Myer - Pricing / price matching

Was at the local shopping centre and walking through Myer and thought I'd pick up a kids birthday present while I'm there as they had a 20% of toys sale. I picked out a Fisher Price product and knew the full price would be more than Kmart/Target but thought it'd be comparable after the discount and plus I'd save some time.

Luckily I did a quick google search - Kmart was $20, Target $23 and Myer $40. Asked to price match and they couldn't as it would be "below their cost price".

How are prices set at Myer? Would you not check what your competitors are selling products for?!

-End of rant-

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Comments

  • +5

    Short answer from my experience - they don’t care

  • +3

    How are prices set at Myer? Would you not check what your competitors are selling products for?!

    As a business, they have the right to set the prices however they want.

    If you ask to price match and they say no, then you have the right to buy it from wherever is cheaper.

    • I know, just a little sad. Had fond memories of shopping at MYER in its hey day

      • Loyalty went out the door yonks ago. Now it's all about the money! haha

  • +3

    "Below cost price".

    This is one of the many pieces of misdirection used by retailers towards consumers.

    Consumers think that the "cost price" is what the business paid for the article.

    Retailers (at least in the context of what information is made available to sales staff) bake other costs into the "cost price" including staff costs, premises, overheads, etc. (maybe even a small profit margin) according to some formula. What it really means in practice is "don't sell below this price".

    Therefore the "cost price" at one store can vary from that at another even if they both bought the item from the manufacturer/wholesaler at the same price.

    That's not to form an opinion on the above, but to shed some light on what is going on here and when consumers are told they are getting something "at cost price".

    • +1

      Well-put Seraphin7

      Myer states within their Competitive Pricing Policy that they will not match the competitor's price if it is below their cost price.

  • This is the Myer model. The department store wants to rely on clueless people that are too lazy to compare prices. This has worked in the 1980s when the internet hasn't taken off and comparing prices was a tad more difficult and involved running through multiple shops in the same shopping district to compare prices.

    But in this day and age, this dinosaur has failed to adapt to today's technologies and clearly can't compete by being:
    - More expensive than competitors
    - Customer Service is almost non existent with clueless staff
    - Customer brand loyalty has eroded

    Another nail to the coffin.

  • I purchased a 17" Wusthof santoku knife at Myer recently (usually I don't shop at Myer but had a gift card from work) after price matching from Peters of Kensington.

    Myer price: $289
    PoK price: $185

    After checking the system, the assistant came back and said they could price match. This means, based on their own T's & C's, they are still making a profit @ $185. Just proves the mark-up when sold at full price is obscene and they should be avoided in almost all scenarios outside of sales/price matches

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