A price tag is a

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

declaring the

price A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation expected, required, or given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, especially when the product is a service rather than a ph ...

of an item for sale. It may be a sticker or attached by

twist tie A twist tie is a fastener made of one or more metal wires encased in a thin strip of paper or plastic, in such a way that it can bend and retain its shape. Wireless polymeric twist ties have also been developed. Use It is used to tie the opening ...

or other means. Some jurisdictions require items (possibly exceptions for bulk good and produce) to be individually marked with the price, or have shelf tags or

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly ref ...

scanners available so customers can determine prices without consulting store staff. In some cases,

unit price A product's average price is the result of dividing the product's total sales revenue by the total units sold. When one product is sold in variants, such as bottle sizes, managers must define "comparable" units. Average prices can be calculated b ...

is also required. Some jurisdictions also outlaw

price discrimination Price discrimination (differential pricing, equity pricing, preferential pricing, dual pricing, tiered pricing, and surveillance pricing) is a Microeconomics, microeconomic Pricing strategies, pricing strategy where identical or largely similar g ...

except for different quantities (e.g. quantity discounts are allowed) or different types of customers (e.g. individuals vs. organizations that might be expected to buy in bulk or have better creditworthiness). For example, the 1936

Robinson–Patman Act The Robinson–Patman Act (RPA) of 1936 (or Anti-Price Discrimination Act, Pub. L. No. 74-692, 49 Stat. 1526 (codified at )) is a United States federal law that prohibits anticompetitive practices by producers, specifically price discrimination. ...

outlaws this practice in

the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Many price tags also bear the name of the store.

History

Before the late 19th century, in most cases,

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

goods did not have a fixed price, and each customer would be expected to haggle with the store clerk. The

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

s, who found it immoral for different customers to pay different prices (now known as

) were an exception.

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

in New York ( Rowland Hussey Macy was a Quaker) also began affixing physical tags to items in the 1870s, eliminating haggling. This allowed shorter training time for new clerks (who would no longer need to know the art of haggling nor the range of accepted prices for every item) and allowed clerks to serve more customers. Even large stores kept goods behind a counter, requiring clerks to fetch items for customers. The Piggly Wiggly chain of grocery stores was the first to become self-service in 1916, further cementing the need for price tags. Price tags soon became commonplace in Western retail stores, and haggling rare outside of proprietors and individuals selling used items.

References

Retail pricing Retailing equipment and supplies Retail store elements Business models {{retailing-stub

History

See also

References