DISCOUNTS ARE NOT SAVINGS

Author: Patrick Blair

When I check out of my local grocery store, the cashiers always ask me for my phone number so my purchasing habits can be tracked.  What do I get for this?  Well, after ringing up the goods, the cashier always tells me something like, “You’ve saved $22.57 today!”  Wow!  I must be really smart or really lucky, because I’m walking out of the grocery store with both food and savings!

Maybe if we’re told enough that we’re saving money, we might actually believe it?  Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, but there’s intelligence behind my cynicism.  When you get a discount, it does not mean you’ve saved money.  I can’t help but feel insulted and dumbed down when I’m told that I saved, when I just spent.

I’ve recently seen a lot of inane commercials from Rakuten (formerly Ebates).  Besides watching people win stacks of $1 bills for correctly pronouncing “RACK-uh-ten,” these commercials teach us that we can “earn” money by spending money (tagline: Shop. Earn. Get cash back.).  Earning by spending, really?

I recently got an advertisement from a local furniture store for a “garage sale,” saying that some items were 90% off.  With such extreme discounts, I wanted to go down there even though I don’t need any furniture.  The ad created big-time FOMO in me!  In all of these cases, powerful psychology is being used to get us to spend.

Psychology in Spending:

 “It’s no good, it’s no good!” says the buyer—
    then goes off and boasts about the purchase. (Proverbs 20:14)

Here, a dishonest buyer uses psychology to get a better price.  Instead of paying a fair price, the buyer falsely criticizes a product and convinces the seller to discount.  The buyer is clearly dishonest, because he or she later boasts about the great purchase.  God frowns upon this financial dishonesty (see also Proverbs 11:1, 16:11, 20:10, 20:23; Micah 6:10-12). 

The proverb addresses an individual buyer, but these days the corporate sellers are the primary culprits who pulling most of the scams.  Aside from actual scams, corporate sellers are also using scamming language.  Instant savings?  Shop, earn?  The problem is that we like this language and use it ourselves. 

How many times have you said, “I just saved … ,” when you actually just spent money.  I do it all the time.  I try to correct myself sometimes, but it sounds awkward, “What I mean, is, uh, that I got a discount.”  It just doesn’t sound as good.

Can we just tell ourselves the truth?  We’re not really saving at all; we’re spending.  Buying lots of stuff doesn’t make us happy.  Most of it we don’t need.  Instead of really saving, we are really spending and getting some fake “savings” in return.  If you really want to save, just don’t spend.  If you need to make a purchase, think about its real value to you and don’t let sales double-talk influence you.

Building up savings and many other related issues are addressed in my book Faith and Finances.  Please see www.faith-finances.com for more blog articles.