Opinion : Did you get any bargains in the Boxing Day sales?
Christmas is over for another year, my how times flies.
Now the shops are going into sale mode trying to entice customers to spend money on items that are supposedly bargains with huge discounts.
However, according to one national news site the number of customers visiting shops on Boxing Day is down on last year. Indeed it seems this year, the number of customers visiting shops (up to midday on Boxing Day) fell by 10.6% on the previous year, marking the largest decline since 2010.
So on Boxing Day did you abandon the comfort of a warm home with plenty of food, chocolates and drink to rush out into the cold and rain to the shops in the hope of getting a bargain? Me neither.
For many years my good self has become disillusioned by the post-Christmas sales.
Once upon a time there were genuine bargains to be had. Televisions would be hugely discounted and shops would offer blanket discounts on everything in store.
Nowadays the sales are very different. Yes, there a huge posters in the shop windows offering a spectacular 75% or so off, however there is usually a small asterisk just after which indicates that the discount is only on ‘selected items’ and ‘while stocks last’.
When inside the retail establishment there may well be a couple of obscure items marked down by 75% but everything else is the normal price. It’s then one realises the window poster was just bait to get the customers through the doors. Well, nobody fools me.
Indeed the rise of the infernal internet and the relentless barrage of scam e-mails has made the general population aware of the ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach employed by people, such as retailers, to lure customers through the doors during the sale period.
Sadly, with the current trading climate, my good self predicts the New Year will see more retailers succumb to financial pressures and close down.
Is it any wonder?
Can you imagine what would happen if a shop put up a poster in their window a few days before Christmas proclaiming ‘25% off EVERYTHING in store and orders made on Boxing Day’? Do you think there would be a rush of customers and profit would be made with happy people leaving carrying items they really wanted purchased at a bargain price?
Of course such a sale would not be likely to happen these days, after all it would be a sale that was in the interest of the customers rather than the interest of the shopkeepers.
Over the years the world changed.
In my opinion one of those changes was increased levels of greed by some retailers who came to see customers as fools to be manipulated for profit. Not only did the attitude of the shopkeepers change but the customers got wiser and can see through fake deals and promotional adverts. Unless the balance is redressed soon the next posters likely to go up in the shop windows will be headed with the words ‘To Let, A1 retail unit….’
So let me ask you. Did you go to the Boxing Day sales and did you get any genuine bargains?
What do you think?
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