Are Social Savings Techniques Ethical?


Personal finance weblog The Simple Dollar has a post on social savings techniques. The big example he gave was shopping carefully for a new pair of shoes for his young daughter at an outlet store, finding a great pair for $US12, then shopping at another store where another parent was planning on buying the same pair for $US50. He told the parent about the shoes being at an 80 per cent discount at the outlet store. Was this ethical?

Image: Bill Bradford

Trent at The Simple Dollar argues that he would not do this at local stores where he values their other benefits (expert knowledge, a place to play board games, ancillary services) but has no problem telling customers at major corporate chains where to find deals.

What do you think? Have you recently experienced any social savings techniques such as coupons left by other shoppers on items? Let us know in the comments.

Some Thoughts on Social Savings Inside the Store [The Simple Dollar


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


17 responses to “Are Social Savings Techniques Ethical?”

Leave a Reply