Post Christmas TV ads

[Brown, Jon Brow]

F***ing sales!!!

Why is every TV ad at the moment for a Sofa Sale (and why do thay all have irritating music.) I can only watch BBC channels at the moment!!

[jim mcglinchey]

Know what you mean, some people must go through cheap sofas at an alarming rate. I'd expect too get about 10 years from a goodun.

[slinkster]

yep... and they're starting on holidays too now... They could at least give our bank accounts a rest before trying to persuade us into spending so soon after christmas!

[Hazell B]

It's worth sitting through the dross to see the Vinnie Jones/RAC ad, though :p :

[Drew]

Thing is, is anybody actually stupid enough to buy a sofa when it's not on sale?

[Hazell B]

That's the point, when they are on sale, it's the actual price. Out of sale times they're grossly marked up simply to make sale prices look good.

They need only place one of each items in ten percent of the shops at the big price to then enter it as a sale item in all shops later. Hence 90% of the shop's stock can be on sale at any one time.

Mark up on a normal suite will be over 300% at it's lowest sale offer price :s

I got a cost price leather suite for £250 inc VAT when it's store price was £1300! The auctioneer who sold it (and a load of others, it was a bankrupt auction) tipped me the wink about how it all works. Sure enough when I got it home the price cards were under the seats - £1300,down to £750. I'd paid the minimum price the creditors had been allowed, plus VAT.

[Dave B]

I used to manage a well-know retailer. Every Christmas we'd have a handful of items on display at a frankly rediculous price in an obscure corner of the store, and one or two of each in stock just in case anybody was mental enough to actually want one.

Come the sales, we'd have a pallet of each in stock and a huge "50% off" poster - quite legally - in the window.

Does anybody seriously believe that Argos, for example, would knock £300 off of a treadmill or £500 off a plasma? Those prices were inflated before xmas for no other reason than their inclusion in the sales.

A new trend is for some retailers, especially the furniture ones, to circumvent the "28 day" rules altogether by comparing savings with a futuristic "post-event" price, some of which are as far in advance as March.

But the public are gullible. They see a saving, they get their wallets out. I used to make a nice fat bonus every year from their stupidity.

[Drew]

Ah I see, that certainly makes sense. Infact I think it was on TV that Tesco would mark up the prices, then offer the product for "buy 2 get the 3rd free" or something :)

I would assume that DFS and so on, hire a lot of temporary staff during their sales? I imagine it's pretty quiet at other times

[LotusElise]

All companies do it.

Has anyone else noticed a lot of Slimfast and WeightWatchers adverts this week?

[Drew]

And also the Kelloggs drop a jean size challenge thing :)

[Hazell B]

Reading my Marketing magazine last night, there's a heap of similar offers being lined up this spring and summer.

Thanks to some foodstuffs going down in price at the end of last year, look out for BOGOF offers galore :)

[DonnieDarco]

That stupid Kleenex ad is already driving me mad. Fancy a chat? And a box of tissues? Actually no, I'm usually more than able to conduct a conversation without resorting to tissues, I've been doing it for years now.

[Daniel]

The best thing is watching the ads for the company that I work for :p

But then again they were on tonnes before Christmas anyway.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I have nothing against sales it's just the irritating sofa tv ads every time you turn on the tele.

Why do sofa's need to be in a new year sale?

[RaikkonenRules]

I have nothing against sales it's just the irritating sofa tv ads every time you turn on the tele.

Why do sofa's need to be in a new year sale?

Because all the chavs get drunk and set fire to their sofa's at New Year's, so they are going to need new ones at affordable prices as there aren't exactly any rich chavs around :D