I worked for a former national electronics retailer for many years. During their final bankruptcy they had questionable sale-pricing schemes. Some products were marked up just prior to a limited time sale to inflate the discount percentage. Other sales advertised as "below cost" featured items whose actual cost was far lower than that advertised to the customer. Before the entire store went to clearance pricing, 90 percent of products left were marked up by 50 to 100 percent, and then gradually discounted over several weeks or months. I believe some of these tactics were probably illegal, not just unethical.