Worth its price. The German word for something that is good value, and it is built from Preis and wert. Not cheap. Not a bargain. Worth what it costs, which is a different and higher claim.
retail
Good, better, best
The standard American merchandising structure: three versions of the same product at three prices, displayed together. The buyer is not asked whether the thing is good. They are asked how much quality they want to buy.
Shop around
Shop around. Get three quotes. Don’t take the first offer. Let them compete for your business. Standard American advice, given to consumers and to procurement departments alike, and all of it assumes the number will move.
Value
The central American product word, and it is a ratio rather than a property. Good value, value for money, best value. A thing is not good or bad. It is good or bad for the price.
The free gift ordinance
Die Zugabeverordnung. The companion law, from 1932, limited free gifts with a purchase. The example used at the time: to stop people buying a bicycle because it came with a kilo of coffee. Repealed on the same day as the Rabattgesetz, and for the same reason — the EU e-commerce directive made it untenable.
Consumer advice
American consumer journalism publishes guidance on how to haggle — what to say at a dealership, when to buy, what the dealer paid, what margin to aim for. The information asymmetry is treated as a problem to be solved rather than as the way things are.
Disposable and durable
Durable goods is a category in American economic statistics, defined as goods expected to last three years or more. Three years. The official threshold for durability in the United States is a period a German would not consider a product life at all.
Customer obsession
Amazon lists it first among its leadership principles: leaders start with the customer and work backwards. Placing it first is the argument. Whoever can speak credibly for the customer has the strongest claim in an American meeting.
The leased vehicle
A large share of new American vehicles are leased rather than bought, typically for two or three years. The buyer never owns the thing and never faces the question of how long it lasts.
Garage sales and flea markets
An ordinary American weekend activity in which private individuals sell household goods and every price is understood to be open. Children learn price negotiation there before they learn it anywhere else.