I've had several retail business'. I've generally followed the Kohl's business model. I opened a new store once in a "lower" income area and decided to offer the lowest prices in our industry/area. My other store that was more expensive but offered discounts did better and what I found was that people, generally, don't price shop, they look for sales or ask for deals.
It's interesting what people pay attention to in various scenarios. For example in grocery stores people will notice quickly if prices they are used to pay for something change, but they won't notice if the amount changes. For example the box stays the same but there's 2oz less in it, or instead of 5 chicken breasts in a package it's now only 4, or juice goes from 64oz to 60oz. For things they buy less often and don't have a "price memory" for all you have to do is convince them they are getting a good deal.
The same is true for cashback and bonus sites, and I fully admit I can get snagged by these, heck Black Friday is just an extension of that really, in that you are motivating people to buy things on some level that they don't really need, or need to upgrade, or would have bought on their own, but for a good enough price they will. You get some really good deals, but still spend more $ than you normally would on stuff you really don't need, it's genius marketing really. Of course if you are disciplined you can work the system to your advantage, just like credit cards with 0% APR deals, as long as you use them smartly you can work the system. I had a buddy that paid off a ton of student loans using them, saved lots in interest and since he paid them off on time there was no downside. If you use the black friday deals to stock up on stuff you use anyway, it's a good thing.
Fuel is another great one, people freak out about gas prices going up $0.10, but for most they really don't matter. Let's say you drive 10k miles a year and your truck gets 15mpg. That's only ~650gal of fuel a year, if gas goes up $1 per gallon, it only increased your expenses $50 a month, less than many people spend on starbucks a month, and these days not enough to cover even a single average dinner out for two.
Also to keep the thread on track Protektor bags are going to have a black friday sale starting today at 6pm, didn't say which time zone or what the sales would be. I assume EST since they are in PA.