The constant furniture store sales are a gimmick playing off of that for most people buying new furniture is a rare event. Most people probably don't pay any attention to furniture prices until they are looking to buy, and their last major replacement or addition was probably years ago. They go looking to shop, don't know prices and *oh what luck, this place is having a major sale. I'll shop here.* It's a dated gimmick with the internet since even a low effort search will show they're all basically doing the same thing with the same prices. Forty years ago though it wasn't that simple. You had to go to different stores, hunt for paper coupons and ads, and it was enough work that if you found something you liked "on sale" that might be good enough for you to call off your search and buy. It's just been around forever and hasn't died off with other boomer things yet. The one I wanna know about are the "gourmet" cupcake shops. Extended family runs a traditional bakery. The gourmet cupcake model makes no sense. In bakeries impulse cookies and cupcake sales are an after thought, and just something you sell on the side cause it's low cost low effort to produce. You keep the lights on by selling breakfast pastries and fresh bread to your regulars who buy those a few times a week. You make your money selling several large custom orders a month where your margins are insane (wedding cakes and the like). The cupcakes are there for a few extra bucks maybe, but just as much to serve as samples for your big custom orders. There's not enough people saying, "Gee I'd like a $6 cupcuke on a whim," to make rent at a major shopping center or mall, let alone it be a good idea as a profitable business. Maybe in a major city where through sheer volume of people, but in suburbia I have no idea what they're doing.