Are Sales A Pointless Thing ?

[Thrustyjust]

Seems all the usual places are having sales. But they had a sale on Black Friday, Cyber Monday , pre Christmas, Autumn sale. They will be a spring sale in a weeks time too. I know the real reason is for punters to think they have a bargain , but do they actually get a bargain ? Prices seems to magically get cut , although they were that price only last week anyway ,that are now the sale prices. Call me a skeptic to the sales patter, but we seems to face the continual Eurocarparts 'sales' which is just boring , as every week now a days. We even have seen tyre sales and insurance sales ( see members bit) . I mean , do people think ' lets run these bald tyres for November and December, as we can get them in the sale ' ' lets not insure our car until January , so we can be in a lucky draw' . These arent sales things, they are necessities, but people think we need to have a sale for every damn thing on offer. 

Not being a New Year Bah Humbug, but this pointless and is almost a daily senario now and I guess the places are trying different ways to make Joe Public spend money, but for me, it makes me hold my spending until I actually need something, rather than hope I buy something I will get for less, that never gets used ( see wifes shoe store) 

Anyway, I am off to buy 2 garlic breads , get one free at Tescos now...................

[Kyle]

Agreed. Most of these sales are the biggest con going and I always ask myself two things:

1) Why is this particular thing being reduced? (eg is it because it's rubbish anyway so nobody bought it)

2) How can they afford to knock this much money off? (eg was it horrendously overpriced to begin with and are you actually getting a fair price not a bargain? Was the price lifted a few months prior to make it seen cheap now?)

Of course it doesn't stop me browsing through sales "bargains" but I usually don't buy owt.

[Thrustyjust]

My daughter used to work for Next and used to do the sales. She said it was ' just clearing out crap that nobody wants' . 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

30 minutes ago, Thrustyjust said:

My daughter used to work for Next and used to do the sales. She said it was ' just clearing out crap that nobody wants' . 

The clothes industry has quite a different sales model though.

According to an upmarket clothes shop owning customer of mine, in their field, the mark ups are quite high on the trade price; essentially so that the clothes shops can buy large stocks in one go, of the different ranges pre-season, while the actual goods may take weeks or months to shift. They are also gambling that the lines they pick will sell and that they have the right mix of sizes. Sometimes they get it wrong and over order a certain size, or get a style that just doesn't sell.

At a certain point, the cycle repeats, so they need to gear up to part with a large sum of money, to buy in next seasons stock, for which they will need room to display. So the old stock that isn't shifting gets discounted out the door. Often times, even with big discounts, a small profit is still made, but the main thing is getting the money back in and clearing space.

That does make me wonder whether certain time limited auto consumables like tyres and batteries may be similar? Though I guess compared to fashions, they still have a long shelf life...

[DonPeffers]

Xmas Halfords promotion see http://www.halfords.com/motoring/engine-oils-fluids/engine-oil?partnumber=338720,338704,542326,640775&cm_re=pricedrop-_-herodeals-_-4loil

There are other offers in Big price drop but I can't say how good value--only know the oil is much cheaper per litre compared to the usual 5ltr Halfords oil.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

These are often still a good saving, specially with a trade card, but just be aware when doing comparisons on price, they're usually a special 4 litre version of the regular 5 litre product!

[dombanks]

I think you just need to keep your wits about you. We've been looking at wood floor sites for months recently so have a good handle on prices etc. O e site is touting a BIG sale on its front page but in reality it's not much more than a few % more than they normally discount by. So if you'd not been to the site before you'd see a 60% discount badged up a a sale whereas 2 weeks ago it was a 60% discount cos that's what they do. Sell emdnof line floors at discount