Americans do not usually bargain over prices, as people do in much of the world. What they do instead is shop around to find the store that offers the item and quality they want at the lowest price. Almost everything sold in the United States varies in price according to the store and often the time of year (just before Christmas is often highest; lowest is just after Christmas or during August, when many stores have sales). Sales accompany most national holidays, such as President's Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day. The day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas are also significant sales days. Sale prices are often indicated by a sign over the merchandise rather than a change on the price tag of each item. Make sure that you are actually charged the sale price; inaccurate computers are not uncommon. The sale price may be a percentage off the regular price or listed as a dollar amount.
Sometimes the price varies according to state or local taxes. Many people cross state lines to buy liquor, cigarettes, or electronics, for example, because there are wide fluctuations in taxes on such items from state to state.
If it is important to you to save money, look for the discount stores in your city. They exist all across the country and are growing in popularity. Much of what they sell is comparable to goods sold elsewhere, but they can offer lower prices for any one or all of these reasons: there may be fewer salespeople (less service); often there is no delivery service except for heavy items like refrigerators; floor space is often so fully used that the store is congested; the decor is simple to save the cost of fancy carpeting or expensive interiors; or goods may be sold only in bulk, that is, in large containers or large quantities and stacked to the ceiling as in a warehouse. These discount stores may be electronics stores (e.g., Circuit City); clothing stores (e.g., Marshall's and Ross Dress for Less); huge hardware and home decorating and repair stores (e.g., Home Depot, Home Base, Lowes,); office supply stores (e.g., Office Max, Staples, Office Depot); and department stores that sell almost everything (e.g., Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target).
In some of these stores you pay a membership fee (e.g., Price Club, Costco, and Sam's Club). Because they are so colorful and have such a variety of goods, these discount stores are often of interest to newcomers who find that wandering through them helps in learning American names for unfamiliar items. There are also liquidation stores such as Building 19, Big Lots, Odd Lots, and Dollar Stores that sell high quality but discontinued household items for extremely low prices.
In most discount houses you will find clothing hanging on long racks. Shoes, socks, or underwear may be piled up in bins. It is advisable to look for those items that carry familiar brand names as much as possible, or ask a neighbor or friend to go with you. Although some of these goods are the very same that you would buy in other stores at higher prices, often they are made with inferior materials and poorly assembled.
Labels: comparison, price, shopping
Overview
It might be said that shopping, rather than baseball, is the real national sport of the United States. As Paco Underhill observed, "We use shopping as therapy, reward, bribery, pastime, an excuse to get out of the house, as a way to troll for potential loved ones, as entertainment, as a form of education or even worship, as a way to kill time." [1] In the small town of Freeport, Maine, just up the road from our publisher, there are 158 stores. One of them, the flagship store of the venerable catalogue company L.L. Bean, is open 365 days a year — 24 hours a day! Should you find yourself in need of a fishing pole and complete line of tackle at 3:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, the people at L.L. Bean can help. In another small town, Bloomington, Minnesota, there is a shopping mall so large that it boasts 525 stores and claims 42 million visitors a year. Apparently that's more than the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, or the Washington Monument, because the Mall of America, as it is called, asserts that it is the most visited attraction in the United States. More than 1,500 couples have been married in the Mall of America since it opened in 1992.
One newcomer to the United States, when asked his first impression, replied, "So many things to buy." And there are! You will find yourself being urged from every page of every newspaper and magazine, on the Internet, and on every TV and radio station to buy all manner of goods, which, in fact, you will be quite happy without. This constant barrage of advertising, with its emphasis on owning this or that in order to be happy, healthy, or more attractive, has given the United States the reputation of being very materialistic. It is true; this is an affluent and, therefore, materialistic nation. It is interesting to note, however, that as soon as any country grows more affluent, it tends to grow increasingly materialistic. Traffic jams develop in country after country as more people are able to buy cars; sales-people work hard in most of the world to sell televisions, watches, furniture, food, clothes, computers, or washing machines.
People everywhere seem to be alike in this respect. As soon as there is any extra money, we seek to raise and keep on raising our standard of living. You may not be surprised by this, but look at the bigger picture: What do people do with their new prosperity? Does it enrich their relationships with other people? How creative are they? How hard do they work? How do they spend their money?
Because so much in the United States is mass-produced, and much of it imported from countries with cheap labor, there is a large quantity of relatively inexpensive goods available to everyone. You will find a tremendous range in price, based on quality, style, area of the country, and other factors. Comparative shopping is a good idea before you buy any major item. From all of the choices available, how are you, the new arrival, going to know what to buy and how to get your money's worth? In the first place, don't hurry. Take time to look over the various kinds of stores and examine the quality of their merchandise; read the ads carefully so that you can compare prices; touch, explore, and examine before you buy, and talk to your new colleagues at work or school and ask them for recommendations. In addition, some helpful guidelines are provided below