London January sales: genuine bargains

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 12

London January sales: genuine bargains

(From

LYNNE BELL

in London)

Our news editor here in London has the nicest coat: dark sophisticated check beautifully cut in soft thick cloth. It’s not unique—there are others like it walking around. But this one is different: it cost him £l5, while the others went for £3O a piece. It’s that time of the year —January Sales—in London. Anybody who has ever bought anything at the London January Sales knows the feeling when these bargains are worn for the first time: fulfilment, at having got something one wanted, relief, that it was bought at probably two-thirds —if not half—the original price: smugness, at the thought that the next person you see with the same item will probably have paid the full whack.

“January, for those immune to sales fever, is a rotten month,” beamed the emparcelled woman next to me in the bus returning us to sanity from Piccadilly Circus—one of the eight major areas that take on a blitz appearance immediately after Christmas and don’t lose the air of siege stocking up until the end of January. (For those who are immune, the places to avoid are Oxford, Regent and Bond Streets, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Kensington High Street, Tottenham Court Road and Piccadilly.) It has been suggested that the most popular post-Christ-mas entertainment for Londoners (probably because the TV programmes are so terrible) is sitting down with Alka Seltzer and the newspapers and making lists of what shops to invade and what to capture therein. Wide advertising Most of the 10 daily national and the seven Sunday newspapers carry early sales calendared in detailed and accurate print. The stores plough vast amounts into press and TV advertising, but the newspapers also give a lot of editorial space to presale tips, during-sale photos, and after-sale quotes from perspiring, triumphant store managers who claim, each year, they’ve never had it so good. The three serious Sunday newspapers usually send teams out to the stores to pick up early hints of (A) top bargains (B) whether you can park the kids in a nearby nursery (Cji. f what you can

expect in the way of sustenance—coffee and sandwiches, Swedish smorgasbord, or a three-course lunch with wine and coffee for 50s and (D) what buses or tube routes to take.

Following the sales is a serious business for a lot of people, not all of them British. One Nigerian woman has timed her holidays for the last 25 years to coincide with the London sales. And there is always some old dear from the East End, sleet freezing over her boots and only a flask of strong sweet tea keeping her upright, at the head of the dawn queue, proclaiming that she always buys' ’Arry’s socks ’ere because 'e goes through ever so many, see, and they’re good an’ cheap ’ere. Perhaps it has something to do with the Trade Descriptions Act of 1968 that London is full of French, Italian and German shoppers (in that order). Since this act became law, the hazard of buying shoddy goods has been removed. Now it’s a criminal offence to offer for sale anything to which a false or misleading description has been added. The chances of buying something that looks good, but falls apart at the first airing, are now so remote as to make the January Sales foolproof for even the dumbest shopper. /Vo deception The Information Officer at one of the biggest London stores has seen the situation change in a relatively short time. “The quality of sales merchandise has undoubtedly gone up. It simply can’t be compared with the situation a few years back. The Act really has made an enormous difference. And, of course, the customers are much more discriminating.” If a ticket quotes an original price and a sale price, the object must have been offered for sale at the original price in the same shop within the preceding six months for a continuous period of nbt less than 28 days and shops can now only hold “Clearance” or “Closing Down” sales or sell “Fire” or “Flood Damaged” goods if that’s precisely what they are. There are simple ways of inspectors making spot checks to see that the merchandise is what the stores claim it to be. Shrewd Continental housewives and Channel-hopping businessmeA are now a regu-

lar part of the London shopping scene. These past weeks it has been a case of elbowing through the Common Market countries, as well as the Mother country, for a colonial to get to the bargain counters.

And it’s easy to see why the French and the Italians come here in their droves. Couture clothes are going for a song Valentino, Givenchy, Nina Ricci, Ektor and Valentino copies, and the young “Diorling” range at Christian Dior.

For the average, sensible buyer who has to be practical, knitwear is the best sale buy. Big names like Wolsey, Pringle, Donbros and Jagger knits are down to between $1.14 and $3.21. Newly-weds and about-to-be-weds leave their household shopping until this time of year. Refrigerators and deep-freeze units carry usually not less than a $5O drop, and the price of linen and blankets is nothing short of ridiculous.