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The retail industry of Canada 18 governed, relatively speaking, by very few laws. Most of these are aimed _ at the protection of the ultimate user â€" customer and the odd one even at the protection of the hen is a discount a discount and when is it a hoax? ‘Discount‘ can often turn out to be a hoax IF YOU ARE OVER AGE 45 WITH A NET WORTH IN EXCESS oF $500,000 rou sHOULD ATTEND THIS SEMINAR. retailer. A good example is "preâ€" pricing". It is illegal for manufacturers or importers in Canada to print or affix a price or price label onto the merchandise. It is also illegal in Canada. for a supplier of merchandise, i.e. manufacturer or wholesaler, to refuse doing business with a It : 18 widely practiced, however, either right on the merchandise or via the ‘electronic highway‘ advertising and printed media. retailer, because that organization refuses to price the merc h andise according to the supplier‘s preset "suggested" price. As it usually goes, â€" we â€" are heavily influenced with innovations from south of the border, good ones and bad ones. This preâ€"pricing came from â€" â€" there. E tI tC a appliances were among the favored targets, and still are. We have seen items packed in beautiful boxes with the price, for example $30.00, prominently printed on the package. The on national television at $25.00, now and here $15.00". This is practiced, mainly before Christmas with toys. A whole chain is built on this practice. And I could go on and on and on. There is no end to the inventiveness of Another favored practice by "discounters" is to stock merchandise advertised, by manufacturers, on television. The ads then read _ as follows: "As seen "discounters" purchase price, as well as any other retailer‘s is about $10.00, enabling the discounter to brag in his ads "regular â€"$30.00 now and here only $15.00.Save 50%". , 0 Office Hours Mon.fri. 9â€"9, Sat. 9â€"5 / x PRICED TO SALE AT $464,900 EXQUISITE This stunning Fairway Hills home backs onto green beit. CALL GAIL MOREAU FOR DETAILS AND APPOINTMENT TO VIEW! The Oakville Humane Society was the beneficiary of a grand reâ€"opening barbecue at Ren‘s Pets Depot last weekend. For every hot dog purchased during the special event, Ren‘s passed the money on to the OHS. Making sure patrons had enough to eat were Kristine Sissoy, Mike Partyka, Dwain Job and Mike Benke. So when is a discount an honest discount? _ Only when it is a price reduction from a pre viou s1 y established price in that particular store or retail organization. The emphasis here is on the words p re v i ou s l y established. This does not mean that just a few pieces are put into the store with a fictitious high price to be followed just a few days later by the whole shipment priced at the so called "discount". So, as a rule, don‘t look for " discounted" merchandise at the start of a season or even during the season. discounters. (Photo by Riziero Vertolli) Discounters â€" mass merchandisers â€" also have to pay rents, light, heat, maintenance, wages, breakage, theft (very high in those "Super stores"), insurance with very high liability premiums. So how are they doing it? It is quite simple, real discounts are only offered on a very small portion of merchandise and I mean small. Something like 3â€" 10%. As a shopper, you would have to be a real expert to win this game. One last reminder, if it seems too good to be true . .. it is. Peter Tesar is president _ of _ the Oakvilleâ€"based Retail Services Institute.