I wrote this for my website blog but thought I would share it here with fellow Writelnkers, many of whom may have their own specials stories of sales successes - or disasters.

Boxing Day and the sales have started – that is those that had not already been running since before Christmas. Sales were even running on-line on Christmas Day itself. Today retail outlets are reminiscent of a Dutch auction. Stock is displayed at ever decreasing prices until a buyer is found.

Sales used to be so much more fun. Sales were held twice yearly, in June and January, and many people looked forward to their sales shopping, not least for the sense of danger, and even saved towards it. Today the goods are displayed in dump bins or trays or simply left upon the shelves with bright red labels attracting attention. In the past stock was often brought in especially for the sales. There was no attempt to produce tempting displays. Instead household furnishings such as towels, sheets and curtains were simply tipped out in a mound on the shop floor and shoppers pulled out the items that took their fancy. What Health and Safety would make of these unsteady towering piles today can only be imagined but in the Fifties and Sixties shoppers happily took part in a deadly tug of war to achieve their prize.

Besides imported stock there were all the ends of ranges – buttons, knitting patterns, rolls of dress materials and clothes galore – that had to be cleared. Often these items were tipped into trays on the counter for customers to sift through. Buttons at a penny each were tempting but so frustrating, too, when it was only possible to find five matching buttons for a pattern demanding six. End of rolls of fabric often left very odd amounts to be sold as remnants. Calculations could be lengthy deciding whether a rearrangement of the pattern pieces might make it fit the available cloth.

Colour was another issue. Often the clothes left at the end of a season were in the least popular sizes but just as likely the remaining stock contained many of the more unusual or trendy colour-ways. To find an entire outfit in the sales was therefore unlikely unless your requirements were for the odd size or you were prepared to go out on a limb with an unusual colour combination.

Television today sometimes features crowds queuing outside large department stores in cities but in the past this would not have been so newsworthy as queues for sales were common everywhere. Grabbing the star bargains was a case of being prepared to make sacrifices, arriving early and being single-minded about heading straight for the appropriate department once allowed inside. Setting your sights on a less competitive area could be the key to sales success. There were fewer people aiming for the menswear departments, for example, so your chances of bagging a bargain there were far greater.

With shops constantly having sales, special promotions and events, sales shopping is almost considered the norm today. Buying a product for the best possible price may involve shopping around, considering on-line purchasing or even haggling but there is no sense of occasion as in the past. Like so many seasonal happenings the sales have lost their unique appeal.