Everyone wants a bargain. Unfortunately, that bargain sometimes turns out to be the proverbial “pig in a poke”.
The term originated in the Middle Ages, when a favourite con was to sell a suckling pig in a sack to an unwary customer, at a bargain price. In the Middle Ages, suckling pigs were a prized meat, and not cheap. A customer would be strongly tempted to pay the price without asking too many questions about the source of the pig, grab the bag containing the wriggling creature, and leave the area quickly. The bag, of course, contained a rat or a cat. And trying to put the creature back in the bag to return it to the seller was no easy task, hence the term “letting the cat out of the bag”. The seller, of course, would disappear almost as quickly as the cat.
Fast-forward to the Wild West a hundred years ago. Every traveling show had, along with its jugglers, acrobats and freaks, its contingent of snake oil salesmen hawking “miracle” cures for everything from ingrown toenails to the plague, one bottle at an unbelievable bargain price of only a dollar (or however much you had in your pocket).
It may have been more exciting for great-great-grandpa to buy his cure for hiccups from the traveling medicine show than the local apothecary, and the medicine from the show had the added benefit of making great-great-grandma sleep all afternoon instead of yelling at everyone. But by the time he discovered he still had the hiccups, and the stuff caused massive headaches, the show was in the next county.
Fast-forward again to 2010. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Is a $500 television set for $100 a bargain if the sales room is the back of a van?
The lure is still the unrealistically low price, no matter that the seller operates on the shady side of the law, and never stays in one place very long.
Police keep warning us to be wary of any deals that look too good to be true, to check credentials, to take the time to think about the deal before handing over any cash. Nevertheless, the modern-day cat salesmen always seem to find customers. They are convinced the creature hidden in the bag just has to be a suckling pig. They talk themselves into a vision of a platter of succulent, flavourful meat, not a flea-ridden and thoroughly annoyed cat.
That said, there really are great deals to be found in unusual places. Customers these days have protections our medieval counterparts never dreamed of, beginning with the ability to learn in a matter of a few quick phone calls if a business is legitimate. But at a time when every dollar counts, we owe it to ourselves to consider more than simply whether a sales person is operating legally. Such things as warranties, guarantees and ease of return are important. Sometimes the real bargain is not the item with the cheapest price tag.
There are many bargains to be found with our local merchants – people whose reputations we know, who are interested in serving a customer, not just making a deal. When a buyer is doing business with a merchant who shares his interest in the long-term viability of the community, he stands a much better chance of coming away from the transaction with a smile on his face.