The big sales con: tracking 'sale' prices of appliances

That’s price data for the year to July 2022 for the Philips Smart XXL HD9861 air fryer at Farmers. It’s by no means the only example at Farmers: The Panasonic NN-ST34HB microwave flipped between $300 and $220 every few weeks, while the Breville Barista Express BES870 espresso machine was either $1200 or between $700 and $900 for a similar length of time.

At $520, down from $730, I thought my Kenwood mixer was a bargain – but I could have done better

The Fair Trading Act says a sale must be a genuine opportunity for consumers to buy a product at a discounted price for a short period. Price comparisons must be based on actual market prices – so if retailers compare the sale price to the recommended retail price (RRP) but usually sell the product below the RRP, it’s misleading.

We’ve highlighted retailers’ fast and loose interpretations of ‘sale’ prices before. It hit me when buying a Kenwood Chef KVC3100 food mixer for our faulty product tracking project. I couldn’t wait to buy – I needed a mixer pronto. I considered myself lucky to score the Kenwood in a Farmers sale for $520, rather than its ‘usual’ $730.

But retrospectively checking its price history on pricespy.co.nz showed that discount happens every few weeks and for the three months after my purchase, it was $520 or less more often than it was $730. Had I bought during Black Week or around Boxing Day, I would have paid just $400. (Black Week is the end of November period that includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday).

My smugness at saving $210 turned into disappointment. And it got worse. At the time I bought it ‘on sale’ at Farmers, I could have secured it for $450 at Moore Wilson’s or $500 at 100% Appliances … and those weren’t sale prices.

Not only was the Farmers sale not really a sale, it’s discounted price was more than other stores’ usual prices on the day I bought it. I’d been well and truly conned.

But hold on, you might say: Small appliances are constantly on sale! And I agree. So I dug deeper, and I give you … fridges.

Most fridges are bought in a hurry to replace a failed one. Well, you’d better hope your fridge decides to break immediately before a holiday weekend, or you’ll pay over the odds for its replacement.

For a few weeks, Farmers sells Fisher & Paykel’s beautifully named RF372BRPW6 fridge-freezer for $1869. Then, every few weeks, for a week or two, the price reduces to $1500 or less. Eight times in the year to August 2022, in holiday weekend sales periods such as Easter and Queen’s Birthday, the fridge cost just $1399.

This isn’t a one-off. I checked the price history of other fridge-freezers at Farmers (including the Samsung SRF5700SD 488L French door, Haier HRF220TW 221L top mount and F&P RF605QNUVB1 605L French door) and they all follow a similar price pattern.

I don’t want to just bag on Farmers here – it’s by no means the only big retailer which operates this way. So how can you make sure you’re not overpaying for an appliance?

Four rules to avoid getting fleeced

Rule #1. Do your research. Don’t fall for adverts promising huge discounts compared with a ‘usual’ price. Find products of interest on pricespy.co.nz or priceme.co.nz and check the price history. You might find the ‘usual’ price is anything but, and the real discount is much less than the store claims. Check the price in other stores … one store’s sale price might be more than another’s usual price.

Rule #2. Play the sales. Every big store has a sale over the Easter, Anzac, Queen’s Birthday and Labour Day weekends, during Black Week and around Boxing Day (those sales now tend to start on Christmas Eve). Many products are discounted more than usual during these periods and if you can wait to buy, you should. But refer to Rule #1 and check whether the “massive sale event” is as good as the store would have you believe.

Rule #3. Ask for a better discount. Go armed with your price research on your phone. Show that other stores have the product cheaper, or that this very retailer has recently offered it for less. You might score some extra discount; worst case you might not. You can only win – there’s no chance of the store refusing to sell the product to you for being a bit pushy. And you can always walk away (see Rule #4). Remember, if the product isn’t on sale and if has been recently, it’s likely it will be on sale again soon.

Rule #4. Delay your purchase. You can save 100% of the price by not buying the appliance. Do you really need it? Don’t buy immediately, stop and reconsider your options. Check your research again. Stores love impulse purchasers and hate thoughtful consumers. Be a thoughtful consumer.

Price behaviour

The recent price history of a few appliances illustrates the rules in action.

Harvey Norman started selling the F&P RF402BRPX6, a 403L stainless steel fridge-freezer, in May 2021. The usual price ($1899) reduced in a sale, then increased sharply for a brief period, before reducing again to the usual price. For example, for a month the price was $1899, until it went on sale for $1714 around Queen’s Birthday weekend (31 May to 5 June). After that, the price increased to $2298 before dropping back to $1899 again nine days later. If you’d bought that fridge in the sale then saw it selling for $2298, you’d feel pretty chuffed at saving $584. But you’d really saved only $185.

You’d be crazy to pay $350 for this Philips HD9200 Essential Compact air fryer

The Philips HD9200 Essential Compact air fryer (an entry-level 4.1L model) costs $350. Or does it? You’d be crazy to pay this much. For 89 days, spread over 10 sales periods between November 2021 and August 2022 – or 33% of the time – you could pick one up at Noel Leeming or Farmers for $200 at most. During Black Week you’d pay just $149 – that’s a whopping 57% reduction.

You’ll see a few different prices for the Nespresso Creatista Plus espresso machine. At JB Hi-Fi it’s usually $899, at 100% Appliances and Smiths City it’s $999, while Farmers usually sells it for $1099. I say “usually”, but you know better by now. Every few weeks most of these retailers reduce the price to $899 or less, while JB drops its price to $799 or less. The biggest reduction was at JB Hi-Fi over the Queen’s Birthday and Matariki weekends, when the price reduced to $638.

This Samsung Jet Pet 70 stick vac is always on sale somewhere

The Samsung Jet Pet 70 stick vac usually sells for $849 at all the usual retailers. But you should never pay $849, as it’s always on sale somewhere. You should aim to pay no more than $749, and if you hang on until a holiday sale, you’re likely to get your hands on one for much less. Around Boxing Day 2021, Smiths City sold it for $600.

I’m working while listening to a UE Boom 3 bluetooth speaker. I bought it from Noel Leeming for $199 – much less than its usual $279 price. It wasn’t a bad deal, but it turns out I could buy it any time for $229 at Smiths City, and around Easter I’d have paid a little over $150 as all retailers competed in the sale.

Play by their rules

Selling appliances and devices is competitive. Price tracking shows it’s rare to find a product on sale at just one retailer. When one goes low, they all usually go low.

Some stores go further and will price-match competitors. For example, with its ‘Price Promise’, Noel Leeming will “match any competitor’s price plus give you Flybuys.” The onus is on you to prove it, though. The cheaper product must be new, not parallel imported, for sale at a New Zealand retail home appliance dealer, available at the time, and the exact same model (down to the same colour).

My advice is to reread rules #3 and #4. Ask for a discount or price match, and if the store doesn’t want to play, walk away and shop elsewhere. After all, if they’re unwilling to match a price, you could just go buy the product from that cheaper store. They’re assuming you won’t because you’re in their store now.

You should aim to match prices from recent history. If you see the store had a sale last week, ask for that price now. Or ask when the product is due to go on sale again. I heard someone doing that in Rebel Sport recently and the assistant replied, “I’m not meant to tell you, but those sneakers will be on sale this coming weekend”. If they refuse to give you a better price, apply rule #4. It’ll no doubt be on sale again somewhere soon enough.

There’s never a sale on your consumer rights

Buy in a sale and you still have all your usual consumer rights. Products must be of acceptable quality, fit for purpose and match their description.

Sale or not, a store can’t pop up a sign saying “no refunds”, “no returns on sale items” or any other wording that attempts to remove your consumer rights.

However, that doesn’t mean you can just change your mind and demand a refund. Some stores offer refunds or credit for a change of mind, but they don’t have to. That makes it more important to do your research before you shop. Seeing the same stick vac selling for $200 less than you paid doesn’t mean you can return the one you bought. You can try, but the store doesn’t have to help you out.

How to use price tracking

I think pricespy.co.nz has the best tracking charts. It lets you choose the date range, and display only prices from the stores you’re interested in. That’s useful, as often the lowest prices can be a little misleading – the data might include stores you might not trust, or products may be listed but are not in stock or are subject to a delivery wait.

It’s worth checking both PriceMe and PriceSpy to see the cheapest deals, as not all stores are active on all tracking websites. Google is in on the game too (of course it is). It doesn’t have historical price data, but you can see a list of current prices. Search for the product you want, then click onto the ’shopping’ tab. You can be sure that the big G is harvesting your data and you’ll no doubt start seeing ads pop up all over the internet for that espresso machine you were checking out.

Scoring a tech bargain

Many tech products, such as TVs, mobile phones and laptops, dance to a different beat. New models hit the market at a high price, which reduces over a relatively short life of a year or two, before the model disappears and gets replaced by the latest and greatest version. And the cycle starts over.

You might still catch tech products on sale during the usual holiday weekends, and you’ll see retailers compete on price for many of them. But prices don’t fluctuate as much as those for appliances – savings in a sale aren’t usually as large. Some tech brands (Apple is notorious for it) manage their prices carefully across retailers, and it’s rare to see much or any discounting.

Our advice is to avoid buying tech models when they are launched, as prices are usually at their highest. Most of the tech categories are quite mature now, which means you don’t get huge improvements between this year’s and last year’s models. You can often save money without sacrificing performance by choosing last year’s model.