Why I rarely get excited about the (various) Jakarta sales

[William King]

My youngest son loves Jurassic World lego so this caught our attention.

First thing to check is does the full discount apply to this model as we were caught earlier in the week with a set of lego that had a 70% discount sign, but underneath a very small sign said selected models only, and apparently have a kick ass sign of 70% off literally glued to the box it still did not qualify for any discount at all.

But anyway, 70% off this model.

What's the price?

Hmmm, seems a little pricey. After discount comes to about 1.2 Jt.

I wonder what the RRP is?

 

[jstar]

Is Lego just expensive here or did they trick? They do that a lot in Europe too btw; increase the price and then give the discount. And the amazing thing is that it’s not illegal to do that.

During the late-night-shopping that the malls have from time to time, they give an additional discount of 20%.

Now Lego can be a good investment. But you need to keep it in the box and out of the sun. I'm considering this one:

The car doesn’t exist yet btw.

 

[William King]

Lego is slightly more expensive here. But it was purely a marketing ploy. Raise the price by 70%. Then offer a 70% discount.

 

[jstar]

Esp. for Europeans the deals in clothing can be very interesting.

Obviously not talking about Gucci or so, but the brands which are produced here are rather cheap compared to, and often on sale.

Examples are:
Levi’s (€85), Lois, Polo Ralph Lauren, Nautica and the ‘golf’ brands like Arnold Palmer, Jack Niklaus. Shoes from Ecco (€140) and Camper (€200). And for the kids the Disney franchise lines.

 

[vocalneal]

I used to offer 10% on some service because Thai's expect a discount but I added 11% first

As for Lego? Toys are usually heavily taxed so by the time the dealer gets it imported and then doubles his price.

 

[snpark]

And hence was born "dubai shopping festival". The biggest con ever created

 

[harryopal1]

With my former African handcraft shop I also sold hair product suitable for Afro or African hair. I priced goods and hated haggling so did not put big margins to cut back. One African bloke used to always complain that I wouldn't give him a discount. I explained that I took the cost price and added a reasonable profit which did not allow for price cutting. He told me that I should mark the goods up at a higher price and then discount them so then he would be happy. With so many developing or underdeveloped countries haggling is a way of life. Personally I always found it a relief to get back to societies where the displayed prices were the actual prices.

 

[waarmstrong]

I am wondering what societies you are referring to, Harry. There are certainly fixed price stores in the USA where haggling is not part of the process. That is not to say there is no bargaining, but its less a personal one-on-one thing. It does go on though, especially for some products, such as cars. Still, bargaining mostly plays out as a matter of timing and comparative shopping. On-line competition drives the price down for everyone, not just expert hagglers. Timing can be seasonal (TV bargains preceding the Super Bowl) or product shelf-life driven; even Walmart has a discount rack for meats and breads where prices continue to drop until the items disappears.

 

[El_Goretto]

That same lego box is 1.25jt on Tokopedia... So yeah, that toy shop is taking the piss!

Then they wonder why brick and mortar stores are dying to online shops with practices like that.

 

[jstar]

In GI I guess?

 

[harryopal1]

I am wondering what societies you are referring to, Harry. There are certainly fixed price stores in the USA where haggling is not part of the process. That is not to say there is no bargaining, but its less a personal one-on-one thing. It does go on though, especially for some products, such as cars. Still, bargaining mostly plays out as a matter of timing and comparative shopping. On-line competition drives the price down for everyone, not just expert hagglers. Timing can be seasonal (TV bargains preceding the Super Bowl) or product shelf-life driven; even Walmart has a discount rack for meats and breads where prices continue to drop until the items disappears.

Discounting to stimulate sales of slow product or foods approaching end of shelf life is somewhat different to having a "sale" where things are marked up beforehand and then marked down close to the original price. Obviously some shops or market stalls sell cheaper than other shops or stalls but for general purpose shopping in perhaps most Western countries (Including Aus and NZ), at least for foodstuff and many other products, the goods are marked at the sale price and most people don't try and haggle. But things are definitely changing and haggling is also becoming an increasingly western cultural process. And I am glad now to be out of the handcraft shop as asking for discounts had become a day to day experience. I think many of the stores in Indonesia like Indomart etc are popular because you pay for the displayed price and as a bule you aren't anticipating that the price of the item just went up because you are presumed to be a tourist or a wealthy bule.

 

[dafluff]

Almost every "sale" event in Indonesia is a scam, or not worth it. Just the other day I encountered a 50% (fifty percent) cash back offer with the following terms:

Max cashback: Rp 5000 (five thousand rupiahs)
Min purchase: Rp 100,000 (one hundred thousand rupiahs)

So either they're scamming you, or the marketing genius behind it can't do basic math.

 

[jstar]

Of course you need to pay attention here.

For instance, we are used to bigger volumes being cheaper. Now this often doesn't apply here; so a 1 kilo pack might be 3x the price of a 500 gr.

But as I said; the real deals can be done on clothes (not all) and other textiles and kitchenware, esp. on late night shoppping at the big malls.

For the rest; order via Tokopedia / Shopee / ..... unless you get a credit card (as Bank Mega) or GoPay / Ovo discount (10% at Carrefour and Hypermart). It is practically always cheaper online. Sometimes even the IKEA stuff is.

 

[William King]

In GI I guess?

Nope. A well know toy shop in a mall in Bekasi.

 

[jstar]

Lego is slightly more expensive here.

As for Lego?

I went into a (not so small or cheap) toy store today and it seems instead of LEGO they carry (replication?) alternatives?

 

[William King]

I made the mistake of assuming that all plastic blocks are equal last year and bought something similar. It was awful, instructions tricky to Understand, pieces hard to fit together and stay together, I was cursing trying to make this giant dinosaur thing that kept falling apart, let alone Mr. 5 and Miss 7.


I made a vow there and then, never again, only original lego from now on .

 

[harryopal1]

Another quality product from China and of course the company came to an agreement with Lego to pay some sort of royalty for each set sold.
The issue of intellectual property rights seems one that will never be resolved and will remain as a burr in these erratic trade relations between America and China in particular

 

[El_Goretto]

I made the mistake of assuming that all plastic blocks are equal last year and bought something similar. It was awful, instructions tricky to Understand, pieces hard to fit together and stay together, I was cursing trying to make this giant dinosaur thing that kept falling apart, let alone Mr. 5 and Miss 7.


I made a vow there and then, never again, only original lego from now on .

Wait till the fake Lego pieces mix with the real ones ? good times!

 

[waarmstrong]

Its either genuine Legos or nothing. I our case, nothing, given the ages of our children and the price of plastic, these days.

 

[William King]

Wait till the fake Lego pieces mix with the real ones ? good times!

Fake lego was duly collected and donated in order to avoid that very problem.