What actually happened is that the carpet companies, in converting from square yard pricing to square foot pricing, built in a hidden price increase. Nine times the new price per square foot was more than the old price per square yard, but because the dollar amount per unit went down, the public was appropriately bamboozled.
Let's see: a customer goes in, sees a price, agrees to pay the price, gets what they paid for. How were they bamboozled? Just because a specific carpet might have cost a bit less a few weeks or months ago?
When is the last time you visited a carpet store? I bought carpet for a living room recently. Prices for interior carpet ran from about $14 per square yard to $55 per square yard. Some carpet was on sale for 20% less than "list price," other types were on sale for 40% off list, some that was not on sale included free installation, some included free pad, the more expensive stuff included neither.
No doubt if I returned the week after, or visited another store, there would have been an even wider range of prices.
So, we have price variances in one store on one day on the order of 400% to 700% (estimating pad and installation). And you're claiming that a "hidden" price change of a few percent is "bamboozling" customers? I don't buy it. (BTW, the store gave me a "total" price on my carpet, taking into account the total carpet needed, installation and pad. Who cares about the "per square yard" price more than the total bill?)
What if the manufacturer or wholesaler or retailer simply decided they could raise prices and make more money? Is that bamboozling? What if they decide they can lower prices and make more money, is the customer still getting bamboozled?
I would suggest that we have far more to worry about in metricating this country than how minor changes in volume of product sold affects the final "unit price" of a few commodities. Such changes will be meaningless anyway once most stuff is available in metric units.
Finally, I challenge you to demonstrate that it was the manufacturer that "built in" the supposed price increase. Why not the wholesaler? Why not the retailer?
Electrical Engineer
Industrial manufacturing manager
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
www.qsicorp.com
