http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304281004579217863262940166?mod=trending_now_2
This article from the Wall Street Journal talks about how Black Friday deals are not really deals. Retailers actually engineer the prices and discounts and then work backwards to the starting price so they have almost the same profits all the time. According to research of thirty one retailers, between the years of 2009-2012, the number of discounts available increased by 63%, and the average discount value increased from 25 to 36%. But, while all this occurred the gross margins (difference between what they paid and the price at which they sold) hovered around 27.9% barely increasing or decreasing. This gambit is partially because people are hungry for a sale, whether or not it actually is one. For example, Penney's CEO, Ron Johnson, lost his job because he avoided the system of discounted high pricing and just stuck to low prices. This caused sales to drop because people did not see any "sale" sign. The purpose of this article is to inform about the strategies of retailers today and also the way the general populous shops. The intended audience is those interested in the idea of Black Friday, how retail companies work, and also general discount shopping. The author establishes ethos by backing up her argument with examples, and also being from the Wall Street Journal. Logos is established through statistics from many studies and quotes from interviews. Pathos is established by talking about the idea of how everyone likes to get a good deal. Overall I thought this was an interesting article and enjoyed reading it.