Bargain Hunt

Retail figures have been released in their droves recently and they aren't making good reading.








Aside from a surge in Boxing Day, footfall in UK shopping malls have fallen by about 7%, with entertainment stores barring the brunt of the drop. Woolworths and HMV are shaking whilst Music Zone have called in the administrators.
Elsewhere, sales at Next have also fallen although I've no sympathy with them. Any store that calls it's staff in during the early hours on Boxing Day just so that it can open it's doors at 5:00am to appease senseless sales shoppers deserves all the misfortune they get.
Across the board though, Internet shopping has boomed, which will probably explain why Music Zone might end up going the same way as Beanos in London.

I can't say I'm surprised though. This sort of thing was going to happen anyway because of the rises in cost of living, utilities, blah de blah, but some of it will be down to the sales themselves.

January sales have always been over-rated. The gormless and the ignorant lap them up but for the rest of us, feelings are fairly indifferent.
Sales are the perfect way for shops to get rid of the junk they don't want. Whether it's last seasons clothes or discontinued electronics, you'll see red sale stickers adorning it throughout January. Disappointingly, that £2000 plasma TV you've had your eye on since November will still have the same price tag on it after you found out that Santa couldn't fit it down your chimney.

Then of course, there's the buy-ins. These are items of cheap tat that the retailer buys in a few months before January for absolute peanuts from a supplier that wants rid of them. Throughout that time, they stick a massively marked up price tag on it. Come Boxing Day, people stand in amazement as that "£55 t-shirt" (wink wink) gets reduced to £5.50, not realising that the profit margin is still more than healthy enough for the companies shareholders.

An hour long browse around Leeds should just that. Only moderately busy shops but clothes racks full of tat.

Thankfully, they'll all be over soon.