The Big Sale

This season's sale is going to be amazing. I realise it is not indicative of a healthy economy, but I trust, like me, you would never wish retailers to be left with rails of stock at the end of the season. And frankly, why complain when for months you've been eyeing those suede Dries van Noten shoes and ever-so-soft Burberry Prorsum leather bomber knowing you could get them for a bargain price? You can hardly blame retail therapy for the injustices facing society today.

A friend of mine, a very clever shopper and PR Manager for one of American's biggest marketed brands, cunningly told me that to make certain you get your designer items at a bargain price you need to think about 'circulation'. Or rather 'out-of-circulation' as she phrased it. Apparently, shopaholics ask stores to lay-away those items they have been dreaming about all season a few weeks before sales begin. As most stores only put items on hold for a week or so, the shopaholic will go to several stores who carry the same brands and request the retailer to put the items on hold successively. In this way your item is always out of circulation and hanging in the stockroom of one store or another. Just in time for it to be marked down in the sale.

This way of methodically shopping the sales requires much too much effort for my liking and ruins the fun of the spontaneous purchase. In my opinion a true shopaholic will know how many stores stock that must-have-item, and will know the date each stores goes on sale. Rather than hassling shop managers to put an item on hold (I much prefer building relationships with shop staff when those Prada trousers your just purchased need to be shortened in 45 minutes in time for your after work drink) you simply need to be organised and cue at the shop on the first day of sale.

Call me a Buddhist, or Zen follower if you will, but if your desired frock has been sold, it wasn't meant to be. There's something dismal about engaging in a tug-of-war over a reduced price tag that puts of me off shopping the sales altogether. Mind you, that didn't prevent me from attending the Giorgio Armani sample sale last week when I got a beautiful black label coat reduced from GBP 995 to 50! While I don't endorse re-mortgaging the house to make a fashion purchase, I'm prone to spend more to enjoy something all season, then pay discount for it and watch it go out of style. By the time autumn/winter hits the shops you'll be dreaming of an entire new wardrobe and no doubt scheming about the next sale.