Price tracking: how to know whether a discount is real

The number that matters is not the discount percentage. It is what the item cost last month.

## Why the RRP is close to meaningless

Recommended retail price is set by the manufacturer as a suggestion. Many products never sell at RRP anywhere, which makes a discount calculated from it largely decorative. A kitchen appliance with an RRP of four hundred dollars that has sold at two-forty for a year is not on sale when it hits two-thirty.

The useful comparison is the street price, meaning what the item has actually been transacting at recently.

## Building a picture

For major retailers, several approaches work:

**Check multiple sellers simultaneously.** If four retailers all list a product near the same figure, that is the street price regardless of what any individual “was” price claims.

**Look at the product’s own history.** Some retailers show previous prices on the listing. Failing that, cached versions of the page from search engines often reveal earlier pricing.

**Watch the cycle.** Most categories run predictable promotional rhythms. Appliances discount around end of financial year in June. Outdoor gear clears at season change. Electronics move on model-year turnover.

## Currency matters across the Tasman

Australian and New Zealand pricing diverges by more than the exchange rate. Import costs, GST differences, and smaller market scale mean New Zealand pricing frequently runs higher on identical goods.

Comparing an Australian price to a New Zealand one requires converting and then accounting for GST at fifteen percent in New Zealand versus ten percent in Australia. Cross-Tasman shipping often erases whatever gap remains.

## The habit that saves the most

Note the price when you first want something, before you intend to buy. Check again in a fortnight. The gap between those two numbers tells you more about whether a later discount is genuine than any sale badge ever will.