By Rosie Lu
I love sales. When I check my phone in the morning, TikTok Shop tells me that the pens I placed in my cart last week are down thirty percent. At the mall with my friends, I always find a BOGO fifty percent off deal for my favorite jeans. With a new location’s grand opening of a viral boba spot I get to enjoy a free small coconut pudding with the purchase of a full-sized drink. These little boosts of serotonin are what make me associate buying new things with instant joy, and that’s something extremely dangerous both to my wallet and the environment.
Most discounts, like the ones I encounter every day, are one of six types. First is the ever-prevalent dollar or percentage off—straightforward and easy to understand, expressed in simple terms like “25% off” or “$5 off.” Product bundling or bulk packaging, especially common in wholesale companies like Costco, persuades customers to buy more, but while it seems like they are saving, the company is profiting extra by increasing total spending despite forgoing a small fraction of the selling price. The most notoriously scammy markdown is the BOGO (buy one, get one) free or BOGO x percentage off, which for the seller, increases order volume and value, but often leads to the purchase of unnecessary items for the consumer. Equally sneaky is the tiered threshold discount, where customers receive a percentage markdown for meeting a total spending quota, such as “spend $100 for 25% off.” In e-commerce, this deal also takes the form of a free shipping threshold, where buyers will add more items to their cart to meet the free shipping requirement. Finally, the free gift with purchase, typically seen when introducing a new product or business to the market, not only increases the number of sales but also boosts the seller’s moral standing within the marketplace due to perceived generosity, which can create a loyal customer base.
All the economic jargon accounts to nothing if you lack the awareness of how its psychology works. The basis of discounting is the retail price—also known as the reference price or the anchor—which is the first information source that goes towards a customer’s decision, hence significantly impacting the perception of the item’s value and the discount’s benefits. A high retail price raises the perceived value of the product, and can make discounts appear more worthwhile. But an overly marked-up original price breaks the trust of customers, such as in the case of Edikted, where shoppers are aware that every item in the shop is severely overpriced but marked down and treat sale items as full price. Just as important is wordplay, which any English Honors survivor recognizes, and it carries over into discount language. Marketers might use “don’t miss out on a $25 discount” rather than “25 dollars off” to appeal to the human habit of weighing potential losses over gains, better known as loss aversion. Likewise, “buy one get one free” seems like a larger discount than “get any two items for 50% off each.” After all, who doesn’t love free stuff? But the third, perhaps most harmfully persuasive psychological tool in discounting is the use of urgency and FOMO, through tools like countdown timers, flash sales, and limited-time offers. Many buyers cave in fear of regretting not purchasing a trendy shoe that’s “never on sale,” or missing out on an influencer-promoted, supposedly flawless lip product.
Though we cannot blame any of these fully natural human urges on a lapse in moral character, we can force ourselves to spend mindfully. The easiest change you can make right now is to clear the digital space you use every day of all consumerist influences. Unsubscribe from retail emails and texts, delete shopping apps, and disable any discount-related notifications. If you truly need to shop for essentials, plan ahead by setting a budget and writing a list, and only stick to your goals. But if done once in a very long while, the value of treating yourself occasionally is undeniable. For me, the only effective way to spend time without overconsuming is the three-month marination method. When you have an impulse to buy something unnecessary, like a special pair of shoes or a new hoodie, keep it in the back of your mind for three months before buying it. Don’t write it down, because if you truly, deeply desire the item, you will remember it after three months.
So don’t let marketers get to you with their fancy language and ridiculously well-timed markdowns. Over time, you will forget about what you don’t need, even if it seems like a must-have during the discount. I still feel the pull of that colorful Instagram post advertising a seasonal sale, but now I recognize what it’s doing to me, and most of the time, that’s enough to dim the overwhelming allure of retail therapy.