Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

About few years ago I bought some towels on sale at Globus. I thought "Coolio, these towels are way cheap and they have to be good quality as they are being sold at Globus!"
Yeah yeah, whatever! Crappest towels I have ever purchased!
Since then, I check the so-called sales out and all the things that go on sale are junk! It's like they purposefully buy cheap rubbish and when it's 'sale time' they just haul it all out from the dark dungeon basement and stick it on some shelves.
I know at Jelmoli (in ZH anyway), they ring a bell when better stock goes on sale for a few minutes, of course we don't have time to hang around in the shop all day and wait for the bell to ring. Although, a friend of mine did this (took a day off of work) and scored herself some gorgeous Schlossberg bed linen.

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Off topic a bit but sort of relevant since we are talking about towels.

Best towels ever: The bath sheets from BHS in the UK. I stocked up last time i went. Cant find anything similar here. They are sooooo soft and huge!!

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Are those the Ultimate or the plain ones? Just had a look and the Ultimate bath sheets are down to £22 from £26, but the plain bath sheets are down to £4.80 from £24. Now that's what I call a bargain!

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

A neighbour of mine used to work at Loeb in Bern many years ago while she was studying and she told me that during the Ausverkauf or sale time, the store would receive a shipment of t-shirts for example, that they paid maybe 1 SFr for and it was her job to stick price stickers on to them. First, one that says 70 SFR crossed out, then 50 crossed out and then 25 SFR as the final price, then it would be put on display. She felt awful about doing this since it's a total rip-off, and asked what the point was. She was told that nobody wants to buy a cheap t-shirt and feels better about getting a good deal on an "expensive" one!

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Good to know, thanks! I'll look out for them. Any tips on bedding? I had lovely satin (cotton) ones from the Migros, but they are now the wrong size. Cant do the polyester/cotton.:(

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

You know, I think it's quite often the same story with sales... I started noticing H&M did it... when have they ever sold pink shiny tracksuits and all the other bizarre things that come out at sales time...?

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

A bargain is something you cannot use at a price you cannot resist. The best solution is to enter the store and walk through the ground floor blindfolded. If you need to be guided to the escalator, choose a man as company, preferably single and unkempt, to increase the odds he will remain insensitive to the fashion jewellery replicas and the "hand-painted" Moroccan lantern sold at half-price.

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

In fact they do. Manor does exactly the same thing. So called Sales are certain times just an opportunity to sell lower quality stuff, I have seen similar products, must be same imported at Migros and Coop. Like back to school sale, xmas sale, etc. These things do not have price tags with discounted price stickers over the old price. They already come with new price tags. We have the same stuff sold at our Vietnamese markets back home, same things, for about 10th the price. And, Manor's line Yes or No is on the Vietkong markets called One or Two, it's funny.

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

I don't think this practice is limited to Switzerland, though. The exact same thing seems to happen in Australia and the UK (my only comparisons!).

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

I miss sales at M&S, Next, Tesco...:msnsad:

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

I agree! We've had some for over six years and they are still going strong.

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

The thing I hate about the sales here is that they give you 10% or 20% off and think they are doing you some kind of HUGE favour.

If you're going to call it a sale, then no less than 50% off will suffice. :msncool:

(I love the US the best with 70-80% off in the sales - that's more like it).

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Best sales *ever* was in the Spanish chain El corte Inglés about 2 years ago. They had on sale the models from that year (I had seen/swooned over some of the pieces during normal times) with 50%-70%. And the prices even went down during the time I was shopping (I confess, was inside a couple of *cough* hours *cough*).

In Portugal is pretty much the same stuff: sales is just an excuse to put out the collections from 5 years ago that didn't get sold. It happens in stores such as Mango, H&M, Zara, Massimo Duti and similars...

In Germany I saw a bit of both... The more expensive stores put the garbage out, the cheaper ones like C&A just stuck to the year collection.

Sometimes I look at those black and white movies of hysterical women during sales and I wish I was born a bit earlier... /sigh

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

A lot of shops buy in cheap crap to pad out their sales. Quite oftern your bargain is not as good as they would leave you to believe.

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Definitely Next! I think their profits are down because I moved here! :msngrin:

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Do tell more about this bell thingy! I must have shopped in Jelmoli about a gazillion times & I have neither heard it or heard of it before.

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Ok no to defend Globus but I got my first BRITA jug there are the reduced price thing, paid 20 CHF and it came with three extra filters...:)

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

Uhmmm, anyone require a personal shopper? or maybe a personal non-shopper.

I can walk around with a permanent scowl, scaring the shop assistants off. Provide me a list, I'll have the items in seconds flat, no time for dilly dallying, all the while providing uplifting comments
"A bargain? it's a rip off at half the price"
"Authentic hand made? couldn't be bothered to put the proper effort in more like"
"WTF is it?"

May not be very effective in electronics dept.

Re: Why I think sales at the stores in Switzerland suck
 

I'll get back to you on that. I'll ask my friend when she did it (it might have been the summer sale in 2010, I'll have to confirm).