Are you walking around in marked down clothes?

Buying on sales is good thinking

I had a birthday recently and last night my young brother rolled up and handed me a present. I appreciate the thought. It was a finely knitted cotton sweater. Just what one needs for the end of winter and the start of spring before the temperatures get out of hand. I rushed off to try it on and to my dismay it was a little tight. I took it back to the store today to exchange it for a larger size, a simple task. The new one, of course, had a price tag on it and I almost collapsed when I saw what he had paid. Little brother sure likes me!

$220 for a sweater?

The assistant was waiting for my verdict and I asked if the sweater really cost $220. "It did when we first started selling them," she told me. "But over the months, the price has been steadily reduced. These sweaters now sell for $79."

Relief

I was relieved that my brother didn't need to take a Payday Loan to pay for the sweater and relieved that I hadn't walked into the store some months ago, seen it, liked it and bought it at $220.

On second thought…

Second thoughts tell me that something is not right. How much did the storekeeper pay for it if he's selling it for $79 and presumably still showing a profit? $60? And when he sold some at $220 at the beginning of the season did he not feel twinges of guilt at making a profit of $160?

The end of season sales

Notices are already appearing in the windows of the stores offering 'end-of-season' reductions. Some of them are up to 70 percent. I always have a problem with such a huge reduction. As I see it, the store keeper set his prices too high in the first place. Surely he would have sold more stock had he set the prices more reasonably at the start of the season. In that case he would be offering 'end-of-season' reductions of 25 and 30 percent now. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Are you walking around in marked down clothes?"