At least Next are busy

poppysarah

olly300 wrote: »

It's legal.

As long as one store in the chain has sold it at least 28 days before for the higher price then they are not breaking the law.

I think nulabour changed the law so a price didn't have to have been for 28 days. It's allowing all sorts of shenanigans now

Generali

edgex wrote: »

Nearly all 'sales' are a con

They should be made to sell the items, at the previous prices, in the majority of their stores, for at least a month before.
eg; if they have 100 stores, it is freely available for sale in at least 51
No hiding it away at the back of stores, no claiming it is always out of stock etc



oh, & the next sale online is rubbish:
bedding is just pillowcases!

I worked in an electrical shop and the cycle seemed to work thusly:

New product comes out with New Product emblazoned across it.

After a month or 2 the price is increased by perhaps 10% and the product is put on interest free credit.

Then the price is cut by 10% and SALE is written across it.

Zelie

Next seem interesting and I find myself wondering how they are doing financially. I had a wander round the shops with my mother on Christmas Eve morning (we were just being nosy, had already got our gifts) and the majority were very quiet with Next being one of the notable few with less than five customers. I forget if they had any sale signs up but hopefully they are doing a bit more trade now that their post-Christmas sale is definitely on.

lincroft1710

Waterstones are currently having a 50% (some 75%) off sale of popular titles, as well as having boxes of clearance items, often out of date reference books, or completely obscure titles, most of these are less than 50% off and have clearly been gathering dust on the shelves. Why not reduce these to 75% off - might even shift a few at this price!

djm1972

Zelie wrote: »

Next seem interesting and I find myself wondering how they are doing financially. I had a wander round the shops with my mother on Christmas Eve morning (we were just being nosy, had already got our gifts) and the majority were very quiet with Next being one of the notable few with less than five customers. I forget if they had any sale signs up but hopefully they are doing a bit more trade now that their post-Christmas sale is definitely on.

I've noticed that Next have always used the "Sale" concept quite aggressively - particularly with their 5AM openings and what not - even during the "boom times".

hethmar

Just had a look on Next website - 50% off all the sale items as long as you take a size 6 or size 20 - very little in between that.

besonders1

The "upto" XX% off is the oldest trick in the book, fools everyone every time of the year.

Walter_J

drbeat wrote: »

Next and River Island are notorious for selling !!!! during their Xmas sales. It always consists of the !!!! that all the stores haven't been able to sell over the past year! For instance !!!!!! like XXXXXL T-Shirts, size 15 shoes and chav looking tops/t-shirts with designs of dragons or wild beasts on the front. Yuk...no thanks!

Surely the whole point of a sale is to get rid of the stock that wouldn't sell at full price, thus freeing up space and cash for new stock.

Anyone who imagines that top selling lines will be offered at genuine discounts during a sale is deluded.

When a shop starts doing that it means only one thing;

They're going bust!

olly300

poppysarah wrote: »

I think nulabour changed the law so a price didn't have to have been for 28 days. It's allowing all sorts of shenanigans now

You are correct on one aspect but wrong on another.

Nu Labour actually tightened up the law under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 due to the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive from the EU. The law only passed in May.

See here for a basic explanation -

http://www.which.co.uk/advice/how-to-buy-in-sales/your-rights---misleading-sales/index.jsp

So while a shop can say it's a Sale item if you have noticed that the shop has been misleading* customers you can actually make a complaint to Trading Standards and if you have personally lost out ask for compensation. (There is an example complaint letter on Which's website.)

*Misleading can be open to interpretation.

wymondham

I think all sales are cons - I've never seen a true sale where a desired mainstream item was X one week and X-50% during the 'sale'..... People can't help themselves though, buying the things they never knew they needed until they saw the sale signs... If you did'nt need it then was it really a bargain?