(Click on the image for the Washington Consumers' Checkbook report)
"Checkbook tracked prices of big-ticket items sold at major retailers for 10 months and found disturbing pricing policies at 17 of the 19 we studied. At these stores, many sale prices—even those that advertise big savings—are bogus discounts, with the same price called a sale price more than half the time. And at some stores the fake sales never end: For several chains Checkbook found most items we tracked were offered at a false discount every week or almost every week we checked. In other words, the "regular price" listed on all those price tags is seldom, if ever, actually the price customers pay."