Dive Brief:

• Several high-profile retailers tout sale prices of items that are hardly ever or never sold at full price, according to an investigation by online ratings non-profit Checkbook.org.

• Starting in June 2014, the organization checked prices weekly for 44 weeks on 6-10 items at Best Buy, Costco, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Sears, and Target, according to the report “Sale Fail.”

• KOMO News in Seattle contacted several of the retailers surveyed, including Sears and Macy’s, which defended their pricing strategies as above board and based on a variety of legitimate considerations.

Dive Insight:

Connie Thompson at KOMO-News in Seattle thoroughly vetted this report, finding some errors in the Checkbook survey, reaching out to retailers, spot-checking some of the sale prices listed, and touching base with the state’s attorney general.

While Thompson found a few slips in the report, her vetting found it to be a solid picture of the nearly perpetual "sales" approach of several retailers. 

But while the practice is borderline deceptive — Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson told Thompson he would forward the report to his consumer protection office for further review — not all consumers want it gone. When retail guru Ron Johnson was CEO at J.C. Penney, for example, he brought on “Fair and Square” pricing — lower prices in general and fewer sales — that actually didn’t sit well with many J.C. Penney loyalists.