Wow, look at this nice five-piece bedroom set. Only $599! Not bad, especially when the description says it’s normally $1800. Five different pieces—that would fill a bedroom with a lot of cheap class! Now let’s put the fine print filter on it:

Five-piece set includes headboard, footboard, wood rails/slats, dresser and mirror.

That’s right, the bed is actually three pieces. That nightstand and other dresser must have wandered onto the set accidentally.

Scott, who tipped us to this, writes, “So to Value City, a bed = 3 pieces? Sheesh! Why not consider each side rail a piece and call it a 6 piece set!?!” Great idea! We think we’ve discovered a whole new way to increase profits without raising prices: segmentation. Why, that dresser can be listed as a 7 piece storage system by itself, a pizza with twelve pepperoni slices on it is suddenly a 12-topping pizza, and KFC’s 2-piece chicken meal immediately doubles to a 4-piecer if you count the bones as individual units.

The important thing to remember is to use misleading photographs, though, or else your customers might not take the bait.

“Classic Cherry Queen 5-PC Bedroom Package” [Value City Furniture] (Thanks to Scott!)

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