| Date: | March 19, 2010 / year-entry #91 |
| Tags: | non-computer |
| Orig Link: | https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20100319-01/?p=14543 |
| Comments: | 20 |
| Summary: | A friend of mine received a flyer for a major department store proudly proclaiming that they were having a One-Day-Only sale. Sale prices were in effect on Saturday and Sunday. Previously on the subject For large values of 1. If this keeps up, I may have to create a subcategory for it. |
A friend of mine received a flyer for a major department store proudly proclaiming that they were having a One-Day-Only sale. Sale prices were in effect on Saturday and Sunday. Previously on the subject For large values of 1. If this keeps up, I may have to create a subcategory for it. |
Comments (20)
Comments are closed. |
I hope for the marketer’s sake it was 12 Noon Saturday to 12 Noon Sunday.
Maybe it was 2 one-day sales that happened to be back to back.
When my bank says they’ll get back to me within 5 days, they really mean 7 or more days. Since weekend days don’t count, they could advertize this as a "0-day sale" because it happens between Friday and Monday exclusive.
Somewhat related that bugs me is when stores especially clothing stores have items on "Sale" that are never not on Sale. They will put a price with a really high number say $80 and mark it down 50% sale. but no matter when you view the item its always on sale from day one until they stop selling it. To me thats not a sale thats the regular price.
Reminds me of a sign outside a pub near me – ‘Happy hour: 6-8pm’
Did they advertise a preview day on Friday too? That’s one I see a lot from a major department store whose name most people in the US would recognize.
Happy hours are notorious. 6-8pm is actually fairly short in my experience. In NYC, I frequently see happy hours from 4-7pm, 5-9pm, or any other random number of hours. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a six hour long happy hour once.
Saturday Day 0
Sunday Day 1
UBound(Days) = 1
1 Day sale.
QED.
The happy hour thing is because of time dilation.
Most people experience time passing faster when happy/active and slower when sad/bored.
Thus, to make a happy hour actually last an hour to the person experiencing it, as advertised, it needs to use up more than an hour from the reference of the unhappy people (i.e. everyone else).
The "6-8pm" is just a guide telling you that you will leave the unhappy people at 6pm and return to them at what is, to them, 8pm. Since most of the world is unhappy — i.e. not participating in the happy hour — it makes sense to let them keep their time as the reference point.
Of course, many have tried to explain their one hour lateness the morning after a happy hour but few have succeeded. You’d have to convince an awful lot of people to set their clocks back an hour, using an argument about relativity which few would understand. If you succeeded it’d make programming date/time stuff even more difficult, and nobody wants that.
The largest value of one I’ve seen so far is seven. The building 41 cafeteria has a sign listing the customer service principles of the food service vendor that runs the cafeteria. "We put safety first" is number seven on the list.
As they say in the press all the time, that’s fairly unique.
"Hey, the sign says you’re open 24 hours."
"Not in a row!"
Maybe the store is open for 12 hours each day. 8 AM to 8 PM = 12 hours on each *calendar* day. 2 12 hour periods = 1 *chronological* day.
They used Excel dates.
—-"but no matter when you view the item its always on sale from day one until they stop"—–
In the UK that’s officially illegal. The goods have had to be on display at the higher price for a certain number of days. Of course the shops only put one example on display, in some obscure corner.
"In the UK that’s officially illegal" – ok, I’ll bite. Explain DFS then. Who’s ever managed to buy a sofa at full price from them?
@Clovis: "Explain DFS then. Who’s ever managed to buy a sofa at full price from them?"
They rotate what’s on sale and what isn’t. Basically, every three months a different 25% of their stock is on sale. The DFS Sale is continuously on, but never covers their entire stock.
Mate, that’s nothing. We have carpet warehouses and cheap clothing stores in Melbourne, Australia, that have been running "Closing down" sales for *years*. Why … won’t … this … pig … die?
How does the DFS double discount sale work then? How is taking £200 off something twice better than taking £400 off it once?
" Basically, every three months a different 25% of their stock is on sale."
Last time I looked in DFS it was more like 75% on sale and 25% at the rip-off price.