The ten percent-lie

The market constantly tries to fool us but most people would say that they know of this. Or, like a famous man once said, "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." But the question is do people actually act on their knowledge, or are they happy with the knowledge that they are being fooled?

I'd say the latter, because otherwise they wouldn't buy the ten percent-lie.
It's based on the common misconception that ten percent off is actually a decent rebate and of good value to customers, which when you actually count on it is not.
If I for instance buy a CD (which I don't, but anyway) it'll put me back about 170SEK (approx. 23USD), but a 10% discount on that would only be 17SEK (2.3USD) which is not a lot of money.
A store sale is used to clear out old stock, but more importantly to get customers into the store only to buy the new, full price-stuff, whereas a ten percent sale isn't a sale, it's just a cheap way to get customers in to the store browsing around.

However, the ugliest and most common way to apply the ten percent-lie is through various loyalty-programs such as membership-clubs or "buy 10 get one for free"-cards. They usually require you to shop for a certain amount to gain a low discount. They can be useful for big households who shop groceries or clothes for loads of money and, most importantly, does it at the same place and would do so anyway.
If you're a young, tight shop-a-holic on the other hand you usually end up buying stuff you don't need and tie your purchases to a certain store. You'll also get a wallet thicker than the bible because of all the other customer loyalty-cards you think you'll use but you don't.

I refuse to become a member of any "club" or take those stupid cardboard-cards from coffee-shops that you get stamps on only to get lost in your wardrobe. I suggest you do the same, the only thing you'll loose are those shackles of "customer-loyalty" that you've been carrying around.