Discounts fail to lift July sales

harbinger13

As I have been watching it seems all the shops have the SALE sign as a permanent fixture rather than during the seasons where it is really a SALE. Most items are hyper priced and during a sale they are raised by 50% and a discount of 30% is offered.

Most of the shops in UK just rip the customer - I just dont understand why. I will take an example - there is only one Banana Republic store in whole of UK (if I am right) and that too in the West End. The same shirt which in an US store (innumerable stores in US) is priced exactly at the same numerical value - $50 and £50. It baffles me - and worst of all people shop there oblivious of the price. I am sure if the shop were else where it would be the same price - for example GAP - it is identical numerical values for the same cloth - manufactured probably in India or China (hopefully not in sweat shop factory).

Yet the average salary in UK if I am right is around £20K while in US it is $35K - which roughly translates to the exchange rate + or -. But the commodities are 2 times the price in US.

I have been struggling to come to grips with this - but hey cant do anything.

Another classic is Starbucks - £2.55 latte, $2.55 in US. Seems like only the rich can survive in UK. Others have to crawl.

Apologize if this is off topic - but I just thought of putting it up here when people are discussing economics (at least a semblance of it).

sdooley

SALE sign as a permanent fixture

If you do see this, report it to Trading Standards as it is a criminal offence.

BettiePage

SingleSue wrote: »

Unfortunately not, I did ask the question but got a rather snooty reply and we are not talking about a fee paying school here, just one of the 2 local comprehensives!

Part of me thinks I should have sent him to the other high school (which my eldest goes to), where they have introduced uniform which can be bought anywhere and chucked out the requirement to wear crested items but they just didn't have the special needs facilities needed.

My nephew goes to a Yorkshire grammar school and they even have to buy their school shoes from the very expensive school shop. Rip off!

lynzpower

Restaurants will be hit much harder in the near time to come. Brand loyalty at a premium price evaporates (although we're seeing this with more and more people heading to Lidl ect and proud of it).

Resturaints have been reporting hits for oer 6 months.

My father works in F&V importing & distribution, he buys & sells for a larger multinational importer. His sales have been dropping dramatically for months- from his very regualr and not-going-anywhere-else customers. Put simply, the resturaunts, takeaways & small corner shops he supplies, are selling less.

Anyone who drives around london will see many resturaunts and takeaways now being boarded up, I spotted about 15 of these in the 2 hours or so I was driving around london this morning ( SE london, SE11 to croydon)

dudleyboy

sdooley wrote: »

SALE sign as a permanent fixture

If you do see this, report it to Trading Standards as it is a criminal offence.

How've DFS got away with it for so long? Do they not have a sale on a Wednesday or something?

harbinger13

dudleyboy wrote: »

How've DFS got away with it for so long? Do they not have a sale on a Wednesday or something?

Naivety - DFS stands for .... ?

WTF?_2

dopester wrote: »

Because they aren't making enough profit to keep paying your wages perhaps?

They aren't forcing you to work there. You are free to move to another employer if you think your skills command higher value.

I'm actually quite happy with what I'm being paid .. although I did have to walk away from a deal my employers offered some months back in order to get what I wanted (they called me back a couple of hours after I declined their 'final' offer ). I'm talking of course about the general propaganda in the media right now which is trying to scare people into accepting real-world paycuts in order to 'stop inflation'.

BS - Inflation has already happened - first publicly visible symptom is a more expensive cost of living, the second symptom is rising pay.

What the government are trying to do is make the general working population bear the brunt of the pain instead of allowing the irresponsible banks and borrowers to fully face the music. I don't see why anyone should have to put up with that without a fight.

With so much cash still sloshing around in the markets from almost a decade of irresponsible lending and plenty of cash on hand to the 'big boys' from the central bank bailouts I doubt we have seen the last of inflationary bubbles in commodity prices .. so all the 'restraint' being showed by the workforce is likely to be rewarded with an ever spiralling cost of living anyway.

WTF?_2

dopester wrote: »

Also I have to admit to feeling a bit of relief at finding I have not just lost £120 to an online DIY store this past week. It seems my order for a new Jigsaw and some associated tools came in just after the company folded and my card hasn't been charged. They'd always gotten tools out to me no problem in the past and I thought them a pretty big online retailer.

Back in 2002 I lost £25 to a company trading Video Games/CD/DVDs to find next day a notice on their site saying they'd ceased trading and with details of their receiver, and, well who likes to lose money like that. So maybe just be careful who you place orders with at the moment.

And yes, I'm sure some of their staff felt they deserved a payrise before the company folded.

If you use your credit card, this is all a non-issue. It's not your money at risk, it's VISA's or Maesto's.

Getting a decent rise that reflects cost-of-living isn't going to automatically result in a company going to the wall. If anyone really believes that to be the case they should be going to their boss and offering to take a substantial pay cut to help the company. :rolleyes:

neverdespairgirl

harbinger13 wrote: »

Naivety - DFS stands for .... ?

I think it's a sofa company - I've never been in a shop, but they advertise a lot.

harbinger13

!!!!!!? wrote: »

BS - Inflation has already happened - first publicly visible symptom is a more expensive cost of living, the second symptom is rising pay.

What the government are trying to do is make the general working population bear the brunt of the pain instead of allowing the irresponsible banks and borrowers to fully face the music. I don't see why anyone should have to put up with that without a fight.

Well Said!
The Govt is by the people and Govt makes sure the people get it back. Everybody in the market knew the big ones will NOT be left to fail - esp Fannie and Freddie. Bear Stearns was another mess - where the tax payer was punished - for the banker's fault. The big guy, I guess Charles, was playing bridge in some resort when the Fed was brokering the deal. Probably he got a hefty package as well! Fortunately in US one gets quite a few tax breaks but in UK one is stiffed.

Alistar Darling is saying in the name of economics, the companies should resist the rise of wages! When he and his friends increase their John Lewis fund (is that correct?) without any reason, he asks us to desist. It does not matter which party it is - both Labor and Conservatives are out to get the common man. Sad state of affairs.