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1-Page Summary of Cheap

Overview

Bargain Fever explores the world of bargains, discounts and coupons. It also explains why we’ll go to great lengths to find a good deal. Many examples are used in this book to explain how people shop for bargains, how they influence our shopping behavior and what future deals will look like.

This book is a milestone in our understanding of how the global marketplace works. The author examines what’s wrong with it and what we need to do to fix it. He takes us on a journey through giant shopping malls and low-wage factories in East Asia, where he explains how we’ve destroyed quality, durability, and craftsmanship for an easy hit.

This article will teach you why low prices are hurting our economy and culture. It will explain how people drive long distances to buy cheap, poor quality products that they don’t need or want. The article will also show you how pricing experts make us spend more money than we should on items that aren’t worth it.

Big Idea #1: The economy has changed drastically over the last two hundred years.

Two centuries ago, if you wanted to buy a dress you would go to the seamstress and have it made. If you wanted some milk, you’d go to the farm instead of the corner shop.

Obviously, the way we shop has changed a lot since then. Why?

Mass-production was invented.

Before the Industrial Revolution, it was difficult to produce guns. A gunsmith would have to make every piece of the gun individually. The finished product was often faulty and had a low rate of success. Simeon North came up with a way to mass-produce guns using interchangeable parts that were made by semi-skilled workers instead of one man making the entire gun himself. This increased quality and reduced production time for high-quality guns.

With the advent of mass-production, people started migrating to cities where they could find more work opportunities. As a result of that urbanization, there was an increased need for cheap goods and services. The economy had to change in order to accommodate this trend.

Big Idea #2: After the Industrial Revolution, people started shopping in a new way.

Before the Industrial Revolution, each product was made by hand. Things we take for granted today were very expensive and difficult to produce.

Thanks to a few entrepreneurs, we eventually adopted shopping in convenient and cheap stores. Cities kept growing, making it more difficult for people to get their products. Therefore, an entrepreneur named John Wanamaker created one of the earliest department stores that provided easy access to goods.

Oak Hall was a store that sold clothing to people of various economic classes. The prices were low enough for everyone to afford them, but high enough for the products not to be considered cheap. It was very popular and innovative, as evidenced by the invention of January White Sales where items are sold at lower prices in order to prevent a recession after Christmas.

Other entrepreneurs followed Woolworth’s example and started their own stores. They offered inexpensive goods, but they cut costs by not providing the same level of customer service as smaller shops.

Pioneers like John Wanamaker and F.W. Woolworth had a huge impact on the way that people shopped in America. They changed how prices were set, as well as how workers interacted with customers in stores such as superstores, malls and discount shops.

Previously, clerks in shops were highly educated and knew their customers quite well. Now, however, they only receive brief training and are supposed to interact with customers as quickly as possible. Stores have also introduced cashiers and price tags so that shopping will be faster than it was previously.