Sale Fail

I've always had a sneaking suspicion that stores raise their prices before a sale.  That way, when something goes on "sale," it's close to or even slightly above the regular price.  Up until recently, it was just a suspicion.  However, a recent trip to the mall has confirmed it.

I stopped by a store the other day which I never go into, but they had big SALE signs everywhere.  I have nothing against this particular store or their clothes, they have some cute stuff, but nothing there looks good on me.  On this particular day, I decided to check out a table of t-shirts.  Here is where I lost all respect for this store (or what little respect I had).  The pre-printed tag on the shirts said the price was $19.95.  Every single shirt had a new price sticker that said $24.95.  And of course, there was a 25% off sign on the table.  In case you don't want to do the math, by raising the price before marking the shirt on sale, the store is giving you a $1.24 discount instead of a $4.99 discount.

The funny part about this was the price sticker was placed directly above the original price.  And by directly above, I mean that the two prices were stacked, so what you saw when you picked it up was:

$24.95  <-- sticker
$19.95  <-- original price

I can just hear the manager telling an employee to put new prices on the shirts.  I imagine it going something like this:

Manager: I need you to change the prices on those shirts over there.  The price should be $24.95.  Take this price gun and change it, and be sure that you put the new price directly above the old price.
Employee: Um, ok.  (thinking to himself)  Why does he want the new price directly above the old price?  Wouldn't it make more sense to put the new price on top of the old price, so that you can't see both?  But if I question him I might get written up.  Oh well, if that's what he wants, that's what I'm going to do.  I can't get in trouble for following directions even if they don't make sense, right?