Emptor Decipiat (Buyer being Duped). All management students would have studied Caveat Emptor (Buyer beware). Maximum Retail Price had been introduced as a measure to help the customer get the best possible price.
Companies don't seem to practice fair pricing. MRP is simply printed but never taken seriously. Take the case of Wipro Garnet 9 W electric bulbs that I bought from Dmart today.
The MRP was Rs 240/- but I got it for Rs 45/-. That is an 80 percent discount. How is this possible? I got 10 bulbs for the cost of 2!!. That is buy 2, get 8 free!! So either Wipro has huge margins on its bulbs, middlemen's pound of flesh is too high in India or the mom-and-pop stores get very little margin (maybe 20 percent) on sale.
So a normal customer who can't afford to go to Dmart pays 80% more than a customer who can afford to go to DMart. A typical example of robbing Paul to pay Peter!
Keywords: How MRP is set in India, Retail pricing strategy, Why MRP is ignored in India, Discounts in Indian supermarkets, Retail Profit Margins in India, Middlemen in Indian retail.
Points to Ponder: Why do supermarkets offer huge discounts on MRP?, How much margin do companies make on retail products? Are consumers being overcharged due to MRP? MRP vs real price: Who decides product pricing? Why local stores can’t match supermarket discounts?
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