Although I worry about the state of “fresh” seafood, and in particular “live” lobsters (are they undead? ), I have come to the conclusion that, what with all the mark-ups on consumer goods in stores today, a “Sale” is exactly what the quotation marks imply—“so called”, but not really. Consider the following:
When my mother was a teenager, in the mid-50’s, she worked in a general store. A mom and pop, small town, we-carry-everything kind of place. Periodically, the proprietor would put up signs indicating certain items, proclaiming TODAY ONLY! (or perhaps, for variety, THIS WEEK ONLY!), and would raise the prices on said items. Nowhere did it say “sale”, or “deep discount”, or “ reduced prices!” or any of those words or phrases used to try to lure “innocent” shoppers into making purchases, and yet the sales of the TODAY ONLY items would go up.
Go figure.
I guess it all comes down to those words of wisdom spoken by Mike Brady to his offspring on The Brady Bunch, all those years ago: caveat emptor.