Many commenters to my earlier entry on sales in France had questions about rebates. Slate explained the whole rebate thing back in 2003. The short version: There are two types of rebates, manufacturer rebates and retailer rebates. Manufacturer rebates exist because they want the retail price to go down, but they are afraid that if they just lowered the wholesale price, retailers would not pass the savings on to the consumer. A manufacturer’s rebate ensures that all the benefit of the price drop goes to the consumer and not to any middle-men. Retailer rebates, on the other hand, are carefully crafted schemes designed to trick the consumer into buying the product and then failing to meet all the requirements for redeeming the rebate coupon. Read the Slate article for details.
January 23rd, 2006
There are two types of rebates, and you need to be on the alert
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Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.
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