To me, "cheap" means "hard to get or hard to please" now.

The global economy is very bad now. Except the houses in US is relatively consider cheap, I think it is really hard to find something that everyone would agree that is "cheap" by now.

Of course there are many low value products. But compare to the prices a year ago, the same product is not cheap any more. Since I'm doing promotional products trading, when someone come to me and say "I want some cheap bla bla bla". The word "cheap" become a nightmare to me. How and where I can find the same quality product that is same value or cheaper than the year before? I do want to please my customers but the word "cheap" become a difficult task to me.

I do like the French word "pas cher" (means not expensive). My French teacher told me that in the French culture, "cheap" this word do not exist. They use the word "bon marché" (means good deal) or "pas cher". I think psychologically it helps me to find a "pas cher" product for my customer than look for something that he/she would agree "cheap".

Perhaps the following words and phrases could be of interest to you:

inexpensive

value for money

economical