We have a store here where all the prices are twice as high as usual, and yet it’s insanely popular. Why? Because hardly anyone buys anything expensive at full price. But people still buy, and that’s what the business model relies on. The store is called Michaels. In Russia, the closest equivalent in terms of assortment is “Leonardo”.
In the USA, you can almost always find a 50% coupon at Michaels – though true, it’s one coupon per bill, but you can select the most expensive item, and unfortunately, buy the rest at full price. But you can go either with a partner or in a small group, or even enter the store a couple of times. Every receipt gives 25% off on the next purchase. Thus, with a bit of savvy, you can buy everything for less than half the price tag. But! There’s a ton of little things being sold that you’d want to purchase. Well, you come to the cashier with a basket, you won’t be ringing up a separate bill for each individual glue stick or pencil.
There’s a ton of people who don’t bother with coupons. “They’re above that” 🙂 As a result, it results in an interesting model: the store effectively has two prices: for the casual/wealthy and for the prepared/economical shoppers. I think that the first group is quite large, although it feels like everyone here uses coupons.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 