How much of a discount should a store place on an item for it to really matter? One cent? One dollar? Does the branding of a “stock up” sale matter when the item on sale is something that you shouldn’t really keep stockpiled in the first place? These are the questions that we ponder here at Consumerist HQ when we read your submissions.

Maybe you’re in the market for a new desktop computer. In that case, Walmart has you covered with this fantastic deal for an all-in-one computer. “My 13-year-old son found it and insisted giving a thumbs up in the photo to celebrate the discount,” writes tipster Steve. We’re happy to encourage up-and-coming young sarcastic consumers.

Petsmart raises the question: how many parakeets should a person have stockpiled?

“I’m not exactly sure how many Parakeets I should stock up on,” writes tipster Corey. “How many is enough for say, a year?”

Over at Toys ‘R’ Us, meanwhile, they’re still sticking with their literal interpretation of what is more than zero.

We joke about dubious sales, but there is a real reason for the tiny discounts. Taking a dollar or a penny off the total signals whether an item is on markdown, and can also signal that it’s on final markdown. We might be expecting too much when we want actual markdowns to follow.

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