I went into “Poundland” today - a private equity owned chain store where everything costs … £1.
Knowing it’s private equity, I started squinting at the prices and checking them online. OK - toothpaste, £1, cool. Coke can marked £0.45 for £1 … haha surely not!? Right, three for £1.
Then I noticed Ibuprofen and paracetamol … £1 each. I recognised the box - they’re 40% of that price in a major chain pharmacy.
It struck me that what these companies do is get people seriously excited about cheap living, have branding that effectively deters the upper income echelons, and suck in naive customers to spend more money than they ever would have, anywhere else. Some lovely algorithms and analysis, and you’re really coining it on the back of peoples’ ignorance (as in, truly not knowing, rather than stupidity), and taking serious advantage of them.
Amiwrong? Same in the US? Made me mad.