How Can They Justify The Sale Prices?

BERNADETTE · 17-11-2007, 20:54

I've just been pondering on the prices pre Christmas and then after Christmas sales. I always buy my grandchildren their clothes for Christmas Day and I always leave it as late as possible to buy them because invariably the prices drop by quite a substantial amount. What puzzles me is how can the shops still make a profit on things that are very often up to half the original price???

garinda · 17-11-2007, 20:58

The retail price is usually at least double the wholesale price, more if the company manufactured the goods themselves.

cmonstanley · 17-11-2007, 20:59

for the rest of the year they are ripping us off.

jackyalex · 17-11-2007, 23:29

its usually a trait to get you into the shop in hope that your going to buy more than just the sale items, usually it works, and they dont make any loss on the sale items as rindy says, the retail price is usually more than double the wholesale price

BERNADETTE · 17-11-2007, 23:37

My grand-daughter wanted some Timberland boots (don't ask they aren't very ladylike) we found them in a few shops but the price varied greatly. We eventually got some in her size in one of the sports shops. When we went to pay the cashier didn't know they were reduced by ten pounds but we soon let him know. The point is we got them for fifty pounds when some shops were charging seventy. Twenty pounds can make a big difference when you are buying for three kids and I still can't work out the reason why the prices vary so greatly!!!

slinky · 17-11-2007, 23:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

My grand-daughter wanted some Timberland boots (don't ask they aren't very ladylike) we found them in a few shops but the price varied greatly. We eventually got some in her size in one of the sports shops. When we went to pay the cashier didn't know they were reduced by ten pounds but we soon let him know. The point is we got them for fifty pounds when some shops were charging seventy. Twenty pounds can make a big difference when you are buying for three kids and I still can't work out the reason why the prices vary so greatly!!!

Yes the Timberland boots a very much in amongst our Teens!!

Rockport are too!! I know my Teenage nieces were doing Tinks head in about them!!

BERNADETTE · 17-11-2007, 23:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by slinky

Yes the Timberland boots a very much in amongst our Teens!!

Rockport are too!! I know my Teenage nieces were doing Tinks head in about them!!

Got to say even though they are expensive she has had her last pair for three years so can't really complain at that can you?

garinda · 18-11-2007, 01:43

Sales are a really good way of clearing seasonal or old stock, mainly because people are so gullible when it comes to them getting what they think is a bargain.

When I first moved to London I was a buyer in a department store, and helped out on the sales floor the first few days of the SALE.

People would come in and ask if you had a cashmere sweater in the SALE. I'd reply that they weren't in the SALE, but were on sale. They never asked the price, which I used to think was daft.

Say a non-SALE sweater was a hundred quid, they wouldn't buy it. Tell them that the same sweater is £150 in the SALE, reduced from £200, and they'd snap your hand off.

Stick a red SALE ticket on something, even rubbish, and watch it fly out. I always think is the item worth whatever price it is to me, if so I buy it.

BERNADETTE · 18-11-2007, 01:48

I get all that and I don't buy things because somone says they are a bargain, I buy stuff I need. But on the other hand lets say I pay fifty pounds for a present and they then reduce it, I am not daft with money but it really gets to me when things like this happen.

garinda · 18-11-2007, 01:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

I get all that and I don't buy things because somone says they are a bargain, I buy stuff I need. But on the other hand lets say I pay fifty pounds for a present and they then reduce it, I am not daft with money but it really gets to me when things like this happen.

I agree. It's really annoying when you see goods you paid full price for, reduced a short while after.

Shops are there to make as much money from us as possible, hence if they think they've too much stock left, they'll do a pre-season sale.

All kinds of tricks go on, even though there are strict consumer laws to protect us. Lot's of stores buy in cheap end of ranges from the manufacturers just to flog off in the sales.

steeljack · 18-11-2007, 02:40

I have a friend who is a buyer for Dillards (a big department store chain in the US) she travels a lot to the 'far-east' and tells of the mark-ups on the manufacturers price and the retail price that would make your hair curl. As an example Asian manufaturers generally supply knit 'polo' shirts at $1.60 per unit , these are the ones which carry the Nike, Izod , Seanjohn (Puff Daddy)lables and usually sell for $20 plus .
Supposedly all the high price cashmere woollens (think Benneton)that you thought were woven from the under belly of mountain goats that happily romped up and down the Matterhorn to the Sound of Music are now coming from the under bellies of Yaks on the Mongolian steppes, another exampleof the 'world economy or Globalization" or the Chinese/Italians ripping us off
Another friend works in the local Hermes store so I usually get one of last years range of neckties as a Christmas gift , pure silk ties that were selling for over $200 last year that she can buy during the sale, including staff discount for less than $30 and they are still making money. (incidentally the writer/novelist Danniele Steele who lives in the area usually buys 200 neckties at $200 each every Christmas as stocking stuffers for her nearest and dearest friends......yep ..its a different world )

lisa1234 · 18-11-2007, 12:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

My grand-daughter wanted some Timberland boots (don't ask they aren't very ladylike) we found them in a few shops but the price varied greatly. We eventually got some in her size in one of the sports shops. When we went to pay the cashier didn't know they were reduced by ten pounds but we soon let him know. The point is we got them for fifty pounds when some shops were charging seventy. Twenty pounds can make a big difference when you are buying for three kids and I still can't work out the reason why the prices vary so greatly!!!

hiya timberland boots are even cheaper on here M and M Direct - Save on Nike, Adidas, Quiksilver, Ben Sherman, Levi’s and more.

i have some and they are really comfy

lisa