Beware of fraud.
Published Specials should be viewed with skepticism.
If there is a label with the price crossed out and a lower price posted, lift the price tag and check the original price. Sometimes the original price is less.
Also calculate the per item price when being offered three or four at a discount. If you can’t figure the per item price in your head, carry a calculator with you. The word “Special” can mean that it is especially marked-up, not down.
Retailers use tricks to fool customers with all the excitement and rush during the Thanksgiving and Christmas buying season. They use consumer buying psychology and that includes where items are placed in the store. Be careful with the stands in the middle isles that proclaim “specials” or “percentage discounts”. Check the original price and do your own calculations of the proclaimed discount.
Men are not as cautious as women. Usually men shoppers know what they want and go directly to the department carrying the goods while women can be distracted by something new in fashion. Many women are “impulse” buyers and spend more than they originally planned to spend. If you have ever observed what stands greet the customer when entering the store, they are high profit items like cosmetics and jewelry. Men shopping alone can be more easily subjected to “bait and switch”. If the man asks a clerk what she thinks about an item of clothing he is considering or even has tried on, the clerk may tell him that another (higher priced) items would suit him better. If the man’s wife is present her opinion can avoid the clever method of switching. Sometimes men are used, masquerading as customers, to offer opinions to female customers.
There are other gimmicks used by merchants especially at outdoor markets i.e., when they place vegetables on the weight scale they often place a small weight on the scale and then ask the customer if it is okay if the exceeded weight is okay. Most often the answer is yes. Watch/observe everything. Challenge anyone that you suspect of doing something shady.
Buyer beware is especially true at this time of the year.