Marked up prices . . .

[dunl]

And that's really just it. Of course they have great prices, and everyone here will agree with that.

But marking it up just to make your discount look better is dishonest. It's not as much of a deal as they are trying to advertise it as.

Plus yes, it's illegal to raise prices and mislead customers(but at no point in time am I making a claim that J&L didn't follow proper law - I'm not a lawyer, and don't know all the fine print on these things):

The Forzani Group

Date: 2004-07-06
Event: Consent Agreement
Court: Competition Tribunal
Court File Number: CT-2004-010
Parties: The Forzani Group Ltd.
Provisions: 74.01(2) and (3) of the Competition Act - Ordinary Price: suppliers generally and supplier's own

Summary:On July 6, 2004, the Commissioner of Competition and The Forzani Group Ltd. filed a consent agreement with the Competition Tribunal addressing the Commissioner's concerns under the Ordinary Price provisions of the Competition Act.

The agreement stemmed from a Competition Bureau investigation regarding concerns that The Forzani Group Ltd. had overstated the regular selling prices of certain products at its Sport Chek and Sport Mart stores.

The Act requires that one of the two following tests are met when setting a regular selling price:

either a substantial volume of the product was sold at that price or a higher price within a reasonable period of time before or after the making of the representation (volume test); or

the product was offered for sale, in good faith, at that price or a higher price for a substantial period of time recently before or immediately after the making of the representation (time test).
Under the terms of the agreement, The Forzani Group Ltd., which operates 217 corporate stores under the banners of Sport Chek, Sport Mart and Coast Mountain Sports and 174 franchise stores under the banners of Sports Experts, Intersport, RnR, Atmosphere, Econosports and Tech Shop, has agreed to:

ensure that all of its future savings claims and regular selling price representations comply with the misleading advertising provisions of the Act;

implement a corporate compliance program designed to ensure compliance with the Act;

publish corrective notices in newspapers across Canada, in Sport Chek and Sport Mart flyers, on its corporate Web sites and its retail stores across Canada; and

pay an administrative monetary penalty in the amount of $1,200,000, along with the Bureau's costs for its investigation in the amount of $500,000.
The agreement will remain in force for 10 years.

http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/i...emid=1182&lg=e

So yeah, it's not a legal thing in Canada.

[reeferaddict]

OK... I actually spoke to someone at J&L about this today as I was looking into my own item - Calcium monitor. Around summertime they were $319... then $309... then finally $293... In the summer, J&L, (as stated in the newsletter), discounted ACROSS the BOARD 5% to reflect the recent strength in the Canadian dollar. This discount isn't remarked, (as it is in the store), rather just reflected on the final price we pay as a percentage of the RETAIL price. Problem is we don't see that online... it is just given to us. So 95% of $309 is $293... the boxing day sale is also based on the $309 as well... call it what you will, maybe poor communication or what have you... but it is legal... and taken in the light it was explained to me about how their POS system works, I perfectly understand it and have no problem with the ethics. They are very frustrated right now, and I pity their position as this has obviously been a big headache to them... one option is to leave the prices at the full retail rate and just have sale discounts from those prices, but we would be giving up that US dollar 5% that we now get to enjoy every day...

There was no frilly announcement for the 5% originally given, and did any of us complain? Didn't think so... And kudos to them for actually taking the time to call me and settle this. I can only imagine how busy they must be right now...

[RonPeter]

The thing I find funny was the items I marked the prices down before the sale were at one price, sale comes on and the retail price is higher and now I just checked their website again and all my items are back down to the price they were on Dec 25 when I made my list...that excuse doesn't make sense to me BUT sometimes I am slow to figure things out. I will still deal with them as they have excellent prices but it just doesn't smell right...to me anyways.

[Willow]

woo good thing my bulbs were sold out and i got a rain check. now i will get a better price on them.

[dunl]

Free bump for a good discussion.

[Richy44]

Bumper again!

[EmilyB]

Hey why is it when other LFS are talked about on Canreef the thread is pulled, but when it's J&L fire away. Just a comment not a criticism

Now isn't that the truth.