How good are the stores ads at the moment...?

Question

Well It is end of fiancial year and the stores have their sales on...but one thing has grabbed me - They are saying "our genuine sale - now on" Genuine, as opposed to what, are the rest of their during year sales shams lol - bet the marketing people didnt forsee this!

Answer 1

Glad you ask. I've wanted to answer this for many years.
If you are a regular shopper, even without buying, and you find merchandise you'd like to have, then wait for a sale, either EOM, (end of month) or semi-annual sales, etc. When you go to these sales, you may find that item reduced for clearance. If you remember the original price, you will recognize a value or not.
There are customers that buy only this way, at sales. They are important to a store in clearing discontinued merchandise and or slow movers. Very important in fashion goods. Remember that size may determine what is left for a sale. If one wears a common size, it's a little unlikely to find it on sale.
BUT,beware of items that you never saw before, if you have shopped before. Does it not make sense that a store will never have enough "regular" goods marked down to service a sale? If they do, they've made drastic buying errors and will not survive.
So, how do they overcome the need for enough merchandise to run a large scale sale?
They buy specially manufactured goods, that may be a lower quality. Sometimes, they do buy overstocked merchandise from manfacturers. This can occur from canceled orders by other retailers, because of shipping dates not honored, or mistakes in calculating projected sales of an item, and, "seconds". Seconds come in different categories, from minor, unnoticible flaws, to nearly unusable. Most retailers will label seconds in their ads, but unscrupulous ones do not.
In any case, the majority of goods has been specially purchased, and regular markups are maintained on this goods. Sometimes, the special purchases are on display at inflated prices, 30 days or so prior, then placed on sale.
Do not believe 50%-80-90% savings. Average markup is 40-50%. In some cases, higher on high risk goods with high markdowns. Avg. markdowns up to 5%, some are higher on high fashion. End of runs, with few remaining/remnants can be marked very low.
Most of these ads insult one's intelligence.
POINT: Be a shopper before sales, on regular, everyday goods.