Editor's Blog Jan 05th 2012
The Madness Of January Sales.
Your wallet or purse has not yet had time to cool down from the pre-Christmas spend. It is still glowing red and smoking like the six barrel Gatling gun in the predator movie, but yet, when we start to see those large red 50% off signs in the shop windows, we are almost possessed by a madness to acquire what in essence nobody wanted two weeks ago.
I really think the January sales are a con; it is the retail business’s equivalent of a spring clean! Do we really need three more pairs of shoes or that gadget that has an operating manual that is bigger than a New York City telephone directory?
Short answer - no.
I tend to do my shopping based on two words, WANT or NEED. Eight times out of ten I will walk out of a shop empty handed, once I have asked myself this question. It is obvious that if your arse is hanging out of your jeans it may be time to replace them, but with the seasons aggressive sales tactics you may find yourself not having saved any money at all.
I must admit that I did walk into a shop yesterday in town because I NEEDED a pair of shoes, the pitch was “buy one get the other pair free”, on closer inspection I saw that the RRP on the shoes was £92. “Wow”, my mind screamed, that means the second pair works out at only £46, but then I picked up the shoes in question and, recognised it as a pair I had seen on a prominent web based outlet last month for £19.99, I dropped them back into their shelf and walked.
"A fool and his money soon part", as the old saying goes. With the advent of online shopping we can now look at hundreds of companies that are undercutting their rivals. Whatever is on offer on the streets can be had, at a fraction of the price, by shopping around online and even with duty paid you can still find a real bargain.
Ed.
