Amazon claims to offer 2.5m titles, which computer users can search through 24 hours a day, then order, often at a discount to the publishers' prices, and have delivered in as little as two days.

ECONOMIST: On-line retailing

Complex refiners, like ConocoPhillips, have flexibility around their choice of crude feedstock and therefore are well placed to benefit from the use of lower priced crude feedstocks, which often sell at a discount.

FORBES: Higher Crude Prices Lift Refining Margins And Conoco Stock Price

Before the Chinese restrictions on exports the La and Ce were often selling at a discount to production cost: for they were simply by-products of the extraction of the more desirable and more expensive elements.

FORBES: The Coming Glut of Rare Earths

Combining them with store specials you can often get toiletries at a deep discount.

FORBES: Connect

Small firms often cash the notes at a discount.

ECONOMIST: Smaller South Korean firms

Employees may be able to purchase their shares at a discount, but often the main pressure is corporate culture.

ECONOMIST: Enron's demise unmasks conflicts in company pension plans

Controlling shareholders, often referred to as promoters, are allowed to sell themselves securities at a discount to the market price, which most investors would view as a form of insider trading.

FORBES: Asian Economies Suffer From Reform Fatigue

Miners and lumberjacks could use the scrip at the company store--often the only store in town--or redeem the tokens for cash, at a steep 25% discount.

FORBES: Magazine Article

At the moment second home owners in England get a 50% discount on second properties which often tend to be located in rural areas forcing up house prices for local people.

BBC: Michael Meacher

These are often as small as an invitation to a reception, a discount in a museum shop or a backstage tour at the Royal Opera House.

ECONOMIST: Some easy ways for the government to encourage more giving