Pricing hurdles are used to selectively discount as part of a price discrimination strategy. By forcing customers to jump over a figurative hurdle the seller sees that they are indeed focussed on saving money and discounts, while not discounting to those that were not prepared to jump over the hurdle.
Sometimes a hurdle is self-propagating in that it makes itself even more effective. For example a midnight madness sale is a hurdle because most people don't want to shop at that time. The madness creates a secondary hurdle in the form of a diminished experience – in addition to the weird hours you also have to deal with crowds of frenzied shoppers, long lines, etc.
The Beyond Cost Plus site takes a look at the tradition of "Cheap Tuesdays" (discounted admission to the movies on Tuesday nights) as an example.
Sometimes a hurdle is self-propagating in that it makes itself even more effective. For example a midnight madness sale is a hurdle because most people don't want to shop at that time. The madness creates a secondary hurdle in the form of a diminished experience – in addition to the weird hours you also have to deal with crowds of frenzied shoppers, long lines, etc.
The Beyond Cost Plus site takes a look at the tradition of "Cheap Tuesdays" (discounted admission to the movies on Tuesday nights) as an example.