Frederick's Of Hollywood Ripped Off Your Grandma, Back When She Dressed Sexy
Take a gander at page 24 of this vintage FOH catalog from 1964, scanned and uploaded by Flickr user "What Makes The Pie Shops Tick?". Their 2-for-$17.99 deal is actually more expensive than buying the items individually. It's good to know retailers are consistent, we guess.
Be sure to click through and read the marriage-hungry copy that describes the dresses—"the surest way to get to the altar... you'll inherit a fortune... wasp-waisted!"
"Save Now! $8.99" ['What Makes The Pie Shops Tick?' on Flickr] (Thanks to LastVigilante!)
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Comments:
It seems that pennies really do matter.
Why do people still want to abolish them?
@Blueskylaw: Because they are too stupid to realize they are being ripped off?
That or that it costs the government more than a penny to make each penny. Thats a pretty good reason right there but I like my first one more.
Am I doing the math wrong or is that only off by 1 penny? $8.99 x 2 = $17.98 . Not too big of a deal, but I do understand where the article is going though.
HOLY LORD! Those things will poke your eye(s) out!
@NitrousO: It may cost more to make a physical penny, but longevity of a coin still makes it an overall good deal. It may cost much less to make a bill, but the average dollar (or 20 for that matter) lasts about a year. Add in having to replenish the supply, and the question of which really costs more shifts.
That's what they mean when they say to project. And seriously, .1 cent more expensive, ooooooh! which today equals to 5 cents, ohhhhhh!
@albear: You could've used that extra penny and invested in a new start-up company called IBM, at which point today would be worth -12,163 pennies.
forget the penny - i'm just being astounded by the fact that [click through the link and check out the catalog page 31] fredrick's of hollywood used to sell human hair eyebrows. it's like a creepy little previously used forehead mustache.
@catastrophegirl - brand new homeowner: Ha! It is. And just think those poor women with zealously thick eyebrows were constantly hounded to donate hair to the "less fortunate" or the "needy and forehead-bald". What a shame.
@nybiker: Well, here's a thought...maybe they're saying that if you JUST buy ONE, you'll save 1/2 cent. I mean, technically, that is a savings. Look at the fonts, too. The "Save Now! $8.99" is all fancy and such, whereas the "2 for $17.99" is plain. That leads me to think that they want you to buy one at $8.99 and thusly save dinero. Maybe their plan was to encourage thriftiness and conservation by purchasing only one of their pointed-boobies outfits. Whadyathink?
@NitrousO: on the other hand, it costs the government far less than a hundred dollars to make a hundred....
@catastrophegirl - brand new homeowner: It's heartening to know that, even then, they were thoughtfully recycling instead of letting all the leftovers from Brazilian Waxes go to waste.
@catskyfire: That's silly. Pennies *don't* stay in circulation all that long because they're so damn worthless. They're not a good deal in any sense of the word. Not for anybody. You can feel free to collect pennies once they stop minting them. Maybe in 50 years they'll be worth something. But please don't force the rest of us to deal with them in the meantime.
For most people, every penny they get is a total loss. They get tossed into the tipjar or lost on the ground or build up between the cushions of the couch or car seats.
If we eliminated them, then half the time we'd win in the rounding. For those of us who aren't OCD about actually counting and using our pennies, that's a lot better than losing their value every time, the way it is now.
One of the more interesting contributions the 50's had to fashion, look up the "bullet bra".
(BTW, they are still available for purchase online)
Why do you seem to think that my grandmother doesn't dress sexy anymore?
@tvh2k: And frankfurters cost a nickle. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, as well, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on `em. `Give me five bees for a quarter,' you'd say
Sorry, I gotta agree with the people who think this article is a waste of time. Yes, they added a whole 1¢ extra for buying two, but that is minor. Also, it's not like it says BUY TWO AND SAVE. The SAVE NOW is over the $8.99.
May not be the most honest, but a far cry from a ripoff.
I have to agree with everyone else. This is more likely a psychological ploy to sell more outfits. I'm no expert, but I would imagine that more people buy 2 of something when they see the "2 for" than do if it was not there at all. I had someone the other day tell me to get another garlic bread all because the tag read 2 for $3.
A. its not the amount that is relevant, its the fact that its nonetheless a rip off, playing on the psychological theme that people will assume a deal IS actually a deal.
B. its funny.
C. So thats where Tim Burton got the idea for the alien assassin in 'Mars Attacks!'
Slightly off-topic, but dudes, not all of your readership is 23. In 1964, my *mother*, not my grandmother, was 24, and would have been right in the demographic for these products. Please keep in mind that your readership extends beyond 20-somethings. Seems like a small thing, but saying "your grandma..." does speak to the narrowed worldview of your writers, or at least one of them.
"If we eliminated them, then half the time we'd win in the rounding."
Do you think big business would allow you
to win half the time in the rounding game?
"For most people, every penny they get is a total loss."
How is having money, no matter how small, a total loss?
"that's a lot better than losing their value every time, the way it is now"
For your information, a 1964 penny was worth 7 pennies in 2008, a seven-fold increase.
LOL! Yes, I was calling about your Slut Special. My husband is going to be at a Shiner's convention next week in Cleveland. Are you sure these are extra tight and will make me look like high price call girl? Oh, great! I am going the the Holiday Inn Lizard Lounge to see Jack Jones and want to look divine while hubby is gone. What? Dippity-Do hair gel comes with it!? Oh, yes give me 2 specials!!! Deliver to Luvvy Cummings, 123 Revolutionary Road, (just off Route 12) Skank, CT. I will be using my BankAmericaCard. OH!! I need a pointy bra, too!
Where is the rip off? The prices are clearly provided and anyone choosing to buy either one or two dresses is fully informed of the price. There is absolutely no deception anywhere.
@watchwhathappens: I think the writers were trying to be funny. My mother was 21 in 1964 and I'm 26 and I was not offended by this article's mention of "your grandmother."
@watchwhathappens: Really? Really? That bothered you? Really?
Good thing you 'spoke truth to power', glibness must be stamped out!
@GMFish: The deception is that the retailer is counting on the consumer to assume as is usually the case there is a volume discount. In this case the retailer played up that assumption by using the traditional format of volume pricing, i.e. [#] for [$] under the price for a single unit. I'm not saying a customer who falls for it isn't blameless, but the retailer IS trying, albeit on a pointlessly small scale, to mislead the consumer.
@watchwhathappens: Saying that only 20-somethings would have bought Frederick's clothes back in the day speaks to the narrowness of *your* worldview, sir/madam! Nothing ever stopped 40 and 50 year olds from lacking taste.
@NerdBurger_GitEmSteveDave: But, the important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time.
@ds: So I was headed to Macy's, which is what they called Fredrick's of Hollywood at the time. I needed to buy some bras so I could seduce The kaiser and get back the word twenty, which the kaiser stole and forced us to use the word dickity. I chased that rascal for dickity-six miles before I found him in a nightclub...
@dbshaw: "The deception is..."
There is no deception. The prices are clearly marked. The prices are not buried in a bunch of legalese or small print. They're there, for everyone to see and understand.
Your argument is that the seller is being deceptive based upon an erroneous belief of the seller. And it should be noted that the erroneous belief is clearly contradicted by the prices clearly stated in the ad. That's not deception on the part of the seller, it's idiocy on the part of the buyer.
Let's assume that the only price in the ad was for the purchase of one dress. I.e., the price for two dresses was not included. In that instance if a buyer bought two dresses, it would be reasonable to assume that the second dress would cost the same as the first dress. That assumption would be reasonable because there is no indication in the ad that the price rises based upon quantities bought. If a person did buy two dresses and was charged a higher price for doing so, in that circumstance I would find deception on the part of the seller.
However, that's didn't happen here. Any assumption of the price of the second dress is unreasonable when the price of the second dress is clearly provided. To put it another way, when prices are clearly provided, there is simply no basis to assume anything about the price.
To sum up, there can be no deception when the terms are clearly provided.
@ds: My story begins in nineteen-dickety-two. We had to say "dickety" because the Kaiser had stolen our word "twenty". I chased that rascal to get it back, but gave up after dickety-six miles.
@GMFish: Your definition of 'deception' is too narrow. The company in question is clearly trying to pull a fast one. If you know that a given % of your customers won't think deeply on what you print, than printing clearly is merely CYA for the deception the company is hoping to pull off.
@West Coast Secessionist: I routinely pick up and spend the pennies you seem intent on throwing on the ground. Thank you.
One does not need to go back to 1803 to find examples of this. Next time you are in your favorite fast food place and thinking about their combo deal, why not add up the individual prices of the constituent parts? You will likely find the savings somewhere around the 6-cents area (before upsell, of course).
@Blueskylaw:
"Do you think big business would allow you to win half the time in the rounding game?"
They do now with rounding up/down in pennies. In New Zealand they round up or down to the nearest dime (a NZ dime is about 6 US cents).
It just goes to show that math is never out of style.