Fire(place) Sale

Today's Star Tribune included a new version of the Amish fireplace ad with a new price and "double coupon" amount. In the previous ad I wrote about recently, the product cost $547, and the coupon was worth $198. But somehow the product price, instead of being the difference ($349) was listed as "just $398." So I guess that coupon was really worth only $149.

Today's ad has the product price at $477 and the coupon at $227, with the price listed as $299 (still about $50 higher than what the coupon would seem to indicate, which should have been $250, for those of us who can do arithmetic).

Despite the sleight of hand with the coupons, that's still a $99 decrease in the price between this ad and the one from a few weeks ago. I wonder why?

Well, maybe it has something to do with the ad that was running on the back of the same page in the paper: a full page for the EdenPure heater, endorsed by Bob Vila and selling for $197 after an Authorized Discount Coupon (love those capital letters!). Its undiscounted price is $372.

I've written before about the EdenPure heaters, and they're also not a great deal, even though they're a bit cheaper.

But it's kind of fun to see these two titans of terminology duke it out. I wonder if the Strib placed the ads back-to-back on purpose?