hedwards: Does that include import duties? I've heard that Brazil has some of the worst duties of any major nation.
Still, I'm not sure whether you're getting a better or worse deal over all.
DaCostaBR: We do have some pretty bad import duties. On the bright side we don't pay any taxes on digital stuff.
I think in most cases we pay a little less than on the US, it's just that unlike equating dollars to euros, it seems pricing here is completely random sometimes.
That's certainly a fair point. When I was in China any foreign goods that weren't markedly more expensive than the domestic equivalent, were counterfeit.
But, this does seem to be more complicated than that.
grimwerk: On the subject, the CEO of J.C.Penney, a major department store chain in the U.S., was fired after his first year on the job.
J.C.Penney had been reliant on a common strategy: drastically increase prices on items, and then sell those items at apparent deep discounts. The now-redundant CEO decided instead to offer those same final prices on items, but without the false increases and discounts. His plan failed miserably, and he's out.
So yes, I encounter pricing shenanigans every time I shop. As Antimateria implied, they are the standard. (And sadly, effective.)
Well, I don't quite agree there. The sales prices were often times pretty good, it's just that they weren't really giving you 80% off, they were probably only giving 30% or so off. And I'm not surprised that this failed miserably, there's something that's addictive about huge discounts, even if you know that the original price was too high.
I've seen a lot of stores around here inflating the prices so that they can offer a larger nominal discount. The grocery stores are some of the worst at that.
