Discounts, clearances, and sales are permeating retail channels and winning consumers hearts. Today, full price is synonymous with over priced regardless of the product and the value it brings to the consumer. Buyers are turning to the Internet and manufacturer websites to circumvent paying more than what they perceive the product is worth. Along with convenience, low price is the driving force behind why many consumers choose to shop online. Avoiding retail stores and the retail mark-up makes sense to financially conscious consumers. But what are the real costs that bargain hunters are making for these insane deals and discounts? They risk losing diversity within the retail market (both online and in physical stores), product quality, and the health of local and national economies.
Original Photography by Chris McClanahan, "Closing Time", 2011
Retail brings diversity to the marketplace by having a variety of products, brands, and price points to choose from. Retailers rely on consumer dollars to pay rent, employees, taxes, and other overhead costs. These fixed and variable financial responsibilities make up the retail store cost structure. The rock-bottom product price that retailers can offer (without pricing so low they will lose profit) is traditionally higher than the online deals of brands and manufacturers. This is due to the differing cost structures and profit models between brand websites and brick and mortar retail stores.
Included in the ‘retail mark-up’ are the values that the retailer provides to the customer- customer service, consultations, fitting rooms, atmosphere, and the ability to touch, feel, see, hear, or taste the product. Brand websites cannot provide this experience, and the lack of ‘service’ is reflected in the price.
Ann Zimmerman, writer for the Wall Street Journal, is unsure about the future success of retailers with buyers focusing so much on price. She writes:
Lower prices are one of the main reasons people choose Internet-only emporiums over traditional retailers. If brick-and-mortar stores can't compete on price, it is unclear how successful they can be with tweaks to merchandising and customer service.
This question of retail success also applies to large retailers.
Original Photography by Will Fisher, "Untitled", 2011
In effort to maintain low prices, many manufacturers make lower quality goods to remain competitive. Naturally, lower-quality products result in lower material costs and those savings are passed along to the consumer. The price the consumer pays for lower quality goods is lack of craftsmanship, originality and longevity of the product.
In fact, Peter Doeringer, a professor of economics at Boston University and expert on global textile and garment markets, said:
Mass manufacturers tend to stick with durable fabrics, simple patterns, and much less style…Advertisers created an image that people accepted: a less stylish image that leant itself to standardization. Consumers were actually marketed away from style and induced and seduced with low price. (Shell, p45)
With such standardization to control costs, consumers risk losing individuality.
Original Photography by Su Neko, "School of Fish", 2006
Another expert, Phil Ciciora, says,
Consumers may revel in the convenience of online shopping, but the low prices on the Internet are often accompanied by even lower product quality, warns new research co-written by a University of Illinois business professor. Yunchuan "Frank" Liu says 'when manufacturers bypass retailers and sell directly to consumers online, product quality can suffer.'
An additional tactic to keep prices down and still make profit is to cut employee wages or eliminate retail jobs entirely. As a result, low wages attract cheap labor, which results in a decrease of customer service quality. In the words of President William McKinley:
Cheap merchandise means cheap men, and cheap men mean a cheap country, and that is not the kind of Government our fathers founded, and it is not the kind their sons mean to maintain.
Even if retailers thrive, driving prices down to remain competitive has it’s own consequences; the retailer receives less profit and communities receive less revenue in taxes. A question some industry professionals are asking now is, “Is the low-cost model sustainable?”

Original Photography by Daniel Oines, "Untitled", 2008
Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of “Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture”, writes,
How is it possible…a $8.98 dress could be designed, sewn from real cloth…packed in a shipping container, shipped thousands of miles, unloaded into a truck powered by diesel fuel, driven smack across the country, unpacked by human hands, hung on a hanger, and displayed for at least a day or two on a Manhattan shop floor? The answer to this questions is that it is not possible, or for that matter, sustainable. (Shell, 53)
Original Photography by Iain Farrell, "Sign of the Times", 2012
Mark Stiving goes on to say,
Any competitive advantage you may gain with pricing is not sustainable… If you adopt low price as your strategy, then your business must be continually focused on lowering and controlling costs…You are attracting the price buyers, customers who are not loyal, but are looking for the lowest price. Once a competitor figures out how to sell a similar product for less, they will charge lower prices and you will struggle.
An additional sacrifice consumers make by shopping online directly with the brand is the well being of their local communities. Portions of local funding depend on the taxes collected from the stores and sales revenue. These taxes go towards necessary construction, local growth and development, public safety, health, and other amenities that add value to the community.
Original Photography by Will Fisher, "Abandoned Department Store", 2011
With brand price wars increasing, retailers continue to be put out of business due to the inability to compete. Because of this, buyers are forced to spend their dollars online or in neighboring towns or cities, which takes even more revenue away from their local community. The local multiplier affect (the recirculation of funds within a community) is compromised, and as a result, the community suffers and entire communities may be forced to relocate.

Nationally, direct brand-to-consumer sales may lead to market monopolization, brand elimination, increase in unemployment, and weakening of retail supported industries (media, industry publications, trade show organizations, advertising agencies, wholesalers, distributors, real estate, etc.).
While the low price bargains of brand websites are appealing to consumer wallets, the domino effect of ‘cheap online products’ creates a gloomy future for retail and our local communities. In the long run, consumers risk losing product quality, variety, and retail diversity in the market. This puts the prosperity of local communities in danger, and in extreme cases may cause once thriving communities to turn into ghost towns. In the never-ending search for a better deal, we, as a society, risk nearly everything.