Steel Notes Magazine www . steelnotesmagazine . com
Steel Notes Magazine
December 2016
Alessia Bastianelli – Italy
Venice 11.26.2016
Are you ready for shopping ?
Christmas is coming and some people have already started to buy gifts ; others , like me , will wait until the last minute . The stores are ready for Christmas , with all sorts of offers , discounts , promotional sales , etc . Surely each of us believes ourselves to be capable of properly evaluating the economic offers relating to particular items . But is this actually true ? Let ’ s look at some examples .
In general , when we evaluate the price of an item , our objectivity is lacking . One would think that we as consumers assign a value to an item by adding up the value of all of the object ’ s features , such as material , options , size , color , quality , etc . Actually , the assigned value is not obtained by simply summing the value of each feature . Rather , we assign a certain weight to each feature , and to each weight we assign an intrinsic value based on how important the feature is to us . In this way , some features will have a greater assigned weight than others ; it is these features that push us to buy the item .
How many of us have ever foregone purchasing a lower-priced item in favor of a very similar yet more expensive item , just because it had a certain feature that we could not live without ? We ’ ve all done this at least once . Just think about all of the times we buy items only for their brand . More often , the most important thing is not whether the price of an item fairly reflects its value , but rather , the impression that the price makes on us . If the price is very low , usually the quality of the item is perceived as low . But if we perceive the price as too high , we will think it is excessive , even if it is perfectly reasonable given the characteristics of the object for sale .
Discounts are a separate topic of discussion . When we have to choose either an offer that gives 50 % more of the product or one that gives a 50 % discount on the product , usually we think there is no difference . In fact , in this situation , our brains have instinctively evaluated the two offers as being exactly the same . But this is not correct . As Derek Thompson of the Atlantic explained , “ You walk into a Starbucks and see two deals for a cup of coffee . The first deal offers 33 % extra coffee . The second takes 33 % off the regular price . The deals appear to be equivalent , but in fact , a 33 % discount is the same as a 50 percent increase in quantity . But , let ’ s say the standard coffee is $ 1 for 3 quarts ($ 0.33 per quart ). The first deal gets you 4 quarts for $ 1 ($ 0.25 per quart ) and the second gets you 3 quarts for 66 cents ($. 22 per quart ).
According to Thompson , there are two broad reasons for why these kind of tricks
114
Steel Notes Magazine www . steelnotesmagazine . com
December 2016
Steel Notes Magazine
Alessia Bastianelli –
Italy
Venice 11.26.2016
Are you ready for
shopping?
Christmas is coming and some people
have already started to buy gifts; others, like
me, will wait until the last minute. The stores
are ready for Christmas, with all sorts of
offers, discounts, promotional sales, etc.
Surely each of us believes ourselves to be
capable of properly evaluating the economic
offers relating to particular items. But is this
actually true? Let’s look at some examples.
In general, when we evaluate the price
of an item, our objectivity is lacking. One
would think that we as consumers assign a
value to an item by adding up the value of all
of the object’s features, such as material,
options, size, color, quality, etc. Actually, the
assigned value is not obtained by simply
summing the value of each feature. Rather,
we assign a certain weight to each feature,
and to each weight we assign an intrinsic
value based on how important the feature is to
us. In this way, some features will have a
greater assigned weight than others; it is these
features that push us to buy the item.
114
Steel Notes Magazine
www.steelnotesmagazine.com
How many of us have ever foregone
purchasing a lower-priced item in favor of a
very similar yet more expensive item, just
because it had a certain feature that we could
not live without? We’ve all done this at least
once. Just think about all of the times we buy
items only for their brand. More often, the
most important thing is not whether the price
of an item fairly reflects its value, but rather,
the impression that the price makes on us. If
the price is very low, usually the quality of
the item is perceived as low. But if we
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