Originally Posted by
josephstern
But psychologically, there is a difference. Marketers well understand this.
If you are OK with a price, then a discount seems like a possibility, but you know you are already OK with the price.
If you get a price and then find there's a surcharge or add-on to actually pay for the item, you are furious, and often either strive to avoid it, or cancel the purchase entirely.
But, yes, of course, the net price is the same either way. It's the experience that's different.
I don't know...to me, it's psychologically the same thing once the "discount" is institutionalized. In fact, I was so irritated by those bogus gas "discounts" that I avoided those stations whenever I had a choice - even if the "one price" station was a couple pennies more expensive.
Any restaurant that tries to cut me a deal to prevent my card usage might or might not get me to accept on that one meal (depending on the offer), but I'll likely avoid the experience in the future.