JCPenney tried that, though. (No, not the strobe-sex, but “honest pricing”.)
They had a huge campaign where they would price things at their rock-bottom lowest, no coupons, no sales, no gimmicks. Certainly no jacked-up prices just to “discount” it later.
It went over like a lead balloon.
People will still flock to, ferinstance, Kohls, where you pretty much know not to shop there unless you got a 20- or 30-off coupon, plus burn off all your earned Kohl Kash, etc., to get a bargain.
Hell, I once just wanted to buy a coupla belts, that would’ve ended up being something like 50bux or more if you throw in shipping, but then to add just a coupla more bux to make the free-shipping minimum, I bought some sox for cheap. But now that let an additional discount kick in, which now again dumped me under the free-shipping minimum, so I bought some more sox. And then the Kohl Kash kicked in at some point, that by the time I was all done, I ended up getting over 80bux of stuff for a small fraction of that amount. Paid the same for all that as I would’ve paid just for the belts, but now got a lifetime supply (and then some) of those baby-booty sox “free”.
Gaming the system and “winning” a huge discount gives people a sense of accomplishment, an extra rush. Just buying all the stuff with no game-playing isn’t as “fun”, even if you pay less for the same stuff, and pay more for the discount.
What’s more “fun”? Buying your doodad for 300bux flat, or finding it for 400 and scoring a 100buk-off coupon? Woohoo! I saved a hunnit bux! Score!! Bragging rights!