'Is an army of savvy consumers killing off retail therapy?' blog discussion

plumber2009

I brought a printer for £59 and a TV for £500 back in august 2009. I went in the same shop during the january sales 2009 to 2010 and the same printer was £79 and the same TV was £650.

Go figure.

nomoneytoday

IMHO you shouldn't buy solely on price.

Whilst it should be in the mix, it simply encourages big box discounters, lack of specialism, cheaper labour at home and at the factories and corner cutting...

ol1v33r

All's Fair In Love And War And Saving

On Guard!

"I held up the queue in John Lewis and waited a couple of minutes to complain about a slightly dented cardboard box a toy came in. the manageress gave me £1 off. VICTORY! " I think next time ill keep my mouth shut. lol

PS Don't buy dented cans you'll look poor.

fiish

It's not always easy, however when I can afford to I try to look at a bigger picture, for example if a shop offering massive discounts simply to price competition out of the business, thereby increasing prices in the long run.

I would be for looking for value for money rather than just going on price alone. Because in the end it is a trade, and often we do get what we pay for

lola34

I now very rarely pay full price for things as I know a few weeks/ months down the line it'll be reduced, who's to blame the shops? speaking in the terms of clothing some shops you can go in on a weekly basis to find yet more stock, or the consumer for wanting more? clothes shops regualrly reduce prices to clear stock just to get more in, do we really need all that we buy as consumers and as it has been mentioned before at what cost, cheaper garments, child labour, poor quality - yes I am guilty of shopping in these shops but its such as fast turnaround of goods is it all going to explode at some point, even big retailers will reduce odd clothing to £1 at the end of the sale -was it really worth making it in the first place? the clothes in the shops are the same anyway season to season and would prefer to go back to the good old days of summer / winter sale, we might not get as many bargains but do we really need them all?

farmera

Having owned shops in the past I can comment from both sides. We could never afford to keep discounting, if we didn't sell items at proper prices then we would never have made enough to survive. In fact in the end we couldn't compete with all the big boys who kept having sales. Got fed up with hearing the quote 'will come back when you have your sale', it just isn't the same for small independent shops. Now I no longer have the shops then do look for the bargains but feel really sorry for all the little shops out there trying to survive.

ThinkingOfLinking

I certainly shop around, use vouchers, cashback sites and fill my time with other activities so I no longer shop as a leisure pursuit or a way of keeping warm and killing time when out and about in town and bored...