I noticed today that some stores had their sales signs up in Toulouse. Some of you may know that in France stores are only allowed to have sales 2 times per year. Once in the winter and once in the summer. I wrote a post about it in the winter that generated quite a response. Read it here.
I didn’t see the signs in all the stores so I guess some have tried to begin again early. There were a few stores that tried this last year and they got fined. Yes you can get fined if you start your sales early. There are pros and cons to this method but after being here for nearly a year I think it probably hurts small businesses more than it helps them, even though the French claim it protects small businesses. I found this interesting opinion on another site:
http://www.discoverfrance.com/france_travel_info/Soldes.htm
No time for the January blues to set in once the end-of-year holiday festivities have drawn to a close. In Paris, the sales season known simply as “les soldes” will be inaugurated on January 10 and you can be sure eager shoppers will be lined up in the Paris drizzle waiting to rush their favorite department store. What makes this French version of the after-Christmas sale so special? For one thing, sale events in France don’t crop up at each holiday occasion, but instead get concentrated into a month in winter (“soldes d’hiver”) and the better part of the month of July (“soldes d’été”). While some stores will run promotions at other times of the year, the word sale is not allowed into the French retail lexicon outside of these two defined periods, under threat of fine from governmental authorities. Most UK and US visitors shake their head in disbelief at the thought that Big Brother is meddling in everyday mercantile exchanges for items that remain in the realm of garments and household appliances. Yet, a State agency, with a name that goes something like General Directorate for Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, is empowered to monitor that all shopkeepers and retailers strictly abide by these measures and it’s up to the local prefects to decide on which date the sales must cease and how deep the discount can actually be, whether 30, 40 or 50% off. So much for the free market… You may think that all these shopping rules and regulations are in place out of a genuine, although overly-authoritarian, concern to protect the consumer, yet in reality France’s read on consumerism is to make sure that luring customers does not breed disloyal competition to the detriment of smaller boutiques and shops. This governmental protection of the retailer goes hand in hand with legislation designed to safeguard small independent manufacturers and agricultural producers, both of whom provide a tremendous source of France’s economic prestige. So some advice to American visitors is to stop shaking your head, embrace this everlasting French tradition and treat yourselves to the experience of “les grands magasins”…
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The sales did start early this year. It is a mob scene and I always think that the best merchandise is kept in the back of the stores, off the sale racks.
http://cyberfrance.blogspot.com/2008/06/sales-again.html#links
The sales started earlier this year and I once again had the impression that the best items are kept in the back of the store, off the sales racks.
sales, again post
LIF
I don’t know why your links don’t show up but here it is again
Sales again post. I couldn’t edit your original to show it.