The post discusses a book called Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture (I haven't read it, but it sounds interesting), which suggests that actually, the fact that the stores are hard to get to makes it seem more likely that they offer excellent bargains.
It's our deceptive brains again. We figure "hey, it's in the middle of nowhere, there's no way they could be charging city prices!"
Which, when you think about it, doesn't necessarily make sense. I mean, they're in the middle of nowhere so there's no comparison shopping, so once they've got you there, why wouldn't they charge as much as they could get away with? It's like airports. Captive audience, baby.
And in fact outlet prices may not actually be significantly lower than those you can find elsewhere, but your brain, in blatant collusion with big business, may try to convince you that they are:
If you’ve driven an hour or more one-way to get great deals at the outlet mall, you are primed to believe you’re getting bargains because otherwise you just wasted a lot of time, effort, and gas for nothing. Once you get there, you’re psychologically motivated to believe your effort was worth it, and you do that by buying stuff and thinking the price is a steal.
Here we could argue that rather than trying to boost the economy, your brain is just trying to make you feel better, which I suppose would be a laudable impulse, if it weren't that I suspect that when my brain tries to make me feel better it's just trying to get me to stop bothering it.
"There there--now leave me alone won't you, I'm busy stirring up false memories and justifying illogical beliefs."
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