I once asked SP about their practice of showing you a greater price but selling it for less. My question was why even list the greater price when the item is going to be sold for less. Of course to make you think you're getting a deal. But you aren't, you're going to be charged in line with their profit margin. When I said this they said everyone does that.
But why engage in this kind of sales optical illusion? Why justify it? And I've caught them in worse.
It's done because it works :D It creates a sense of urgency in the buyer, attracts attention, and makes the buyer feel smart, like they're getting a deal.
Supermarkets are very sophisticated at that - dunno about the US so I'll speak about UK and Greek ones anyway - that thing of showing you a reduced price dawned on me when I realised that there were some products I was buying regularly when that I had never seen not being on sale for more than 2 years.
Off topic, what really blew my mind was once in the UK, I realised I was getting coupons for stuff like toothpaste, soap etc about 2-3 days before what I had at home would be finished.
