cheap at half the price...

[misslideaway]

Does that mean that it is expensive at full price?

[Quizmonster]

�Cheap at half the price would make more sense if it were �cheap at double the price'. It probably came from the cries of market-traders/street-sellers, such as Del-Boy Trotter, shouting their wares. They might have cried:"This is worth �8.00 but I'm not asking for �8.00...I'm not even asking for �4.00...all I'm asking today is �2.00! Come on, ladies and gentlemen...it's cheap at half the price!" Another way of expressing it would be to think of "(This item is) cheap (today) at half the (normal) price."

[Postdog]

The one that gets me (can't think who it is now, but it's quite a famous company) is "Never knowingly undersold" What the hell does that mean then?

[lankeela]

Its John Lewis and I never understood it either.

[Quizmonster]

To 'undersell' has meant to 'sell at a lower price' than the competition for over 400 years. So, John Lewis or whoever were claiming that their prices were the cheapest as far as they knew. Presumably, had they ever found anyone else selling an item for less than they did, they would have reduced their price even further.

[misslideaway]

Another classic is new and improved ... now how can that be? surely its one or the other?

[raysparx]

I thought New and Improved always meant we are going to charge you a lot more for it in future

and yes Quizmonster you are right it was used years ago I have used it myself when helping out on a stall in portobello road in the 60s

[ambergregory]

I don't see a problem with 'new and improved'. If I invent Product X and put it on sale, then I get customer feedback and realize there are extra features that could be added, or things that could be made to work better, and incorporate all these into Product X Mark 2, it's a new version, an improvement on the original.

[smorodina]

In the deep and distant past, Quizmonster provided a link that can be found in this thread:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question14501.html

...but not this time.

[Quizmonster]

Thanks for that, Smorodina...I'd forgotten the earlier reference.
(Where have you been of late? I haven't seen your name around for a while.)

[dancealot13]

cheap at half the price....to me means its all round dirt cheap. Its cheap at full price and even at half price.