WHOA! Hold on a minute there Martin!
Great advice for the large companies and High Street chains, but please, please PLEASE, don't make life more difficult for the small independent retailer than it already is. Please do NOT use these techniques in those unique, independent, shops that give the otherwise bland and uniform High Streets a bit of colour and variety.
My wife has run a clothes shop for twenty years. She survived the last recession - just - but one bad season can wipe you out. Things are already bad. The last thing she needs is what few customers are coming through the door demanding discounts and finding imaginary faults.
What people fail to realise is that 10% off a retail price is much more than 10% of the gross profit on an item. If you buy something wholesale for £50 and sell it retail for £135, ten percent off is a discount of £13.50, but £13.50 is nearly 16% of the gross profit on that item.
Customers have no idea how difficult it is to run a shop and how much work is involved. It's not a 9-5 job. Night after night she comes home to do paperwork, deal with returns, and worry about the next week's takings, sort out staff problems, arrange advertising etc.
Treat your independent retailer with respect and don't ask for discount. Otherwise you can look forward to every town in country full of the same old boring chains and no variety, nothing new or different, none of that personal service, or that special touch.
Support your local independent butcher, baker, candlestick maker, and most of all clothes shops!
Thank you