Oh, No they Didn't!

So I went to a major dept. store yesterday- they claim to be America's #1 source of home decorating fabrics and treatments. They were advertising 65% off of their fabrics so I asked for a quote on a generic looking cotton print... the kind you'd find all day and night at a fabric store for about $20. I gave the associate a story about how my wife was going to redo our living room windows and that she found a fabric she liked, but it was outrageously priced ($80 per yard). He was duly confident that the fabric in the store was cheaper and went through about fifteen steps on his computer to fetch me a price (none of the custom fabrics have price tags- a cynically dishonest approach that I loathe). Turns out that the generic pattern cost $68 per yard.

$68 a yard for a generic cotton fabric. No name designer. No name pattern. At a dept. store who's nitch is slightly above Sears and decidedly below Macy's.

$68 a yard is obviously overpriced- which I thought- is the reason that they can offer it for sale at a stupidly transparent 65% off.  At 65% off this generic print would be $23.80. Not a deal- but not gouging. Unfortunately, $68 WAS the 65% off price. Which is to say, there really was no sale at all. Nobody would pay $193 per yard for this, or any other fabric at this store. While this price is perfectly reasonable for exotic hand printed designs from the world's top mills- it's beyond the pale for a cruddy generic print.

Who would buy this? At $193 per yard you are looking at about $1200 per window in fabric. Or $36,000 if you were doing all thirty windows at your house.

Obviously, this type of operation is intentionally deceptive- so do your homework before you make a purchase. There are great deals out there- but perhaps- not at your local mall.