Chch store introduces ‘price-slide’

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 4

Chch store introduces ‘price-slide’

A "price-slide" started this week by a Christchurch department store, could enable a lucky shopper to acquire goods for nothing.

The slide is based on an American idea which sees the price of items regularly reduced. If the items are not bought at reduced prices the cost will fall until they are free.

Butterfields started a price slide last Wednesday, said its High Street store manager. Mr K. K. Anderson. Each week it would take 10 per cent off the price of goods. Goods on offer would include clothing, furniture, home appliances, hardware.and stereo equipment. Mr Anderson said most of the items were "slow-moving stock" ranging from quality sheets and towels to three or four lounge suites. The top-priced item was a $2OOO lounge suite.

An area of the store’s first floor had been set aside for price-slide items and each week new stock would be put in the section.

Already, said Mr Anderson. a number of customers had looked over the section. "It is a sale you can really see working,” he said. The price-slide was likely to be a permanent feature of all Butterfields South Island stores. It was seen as a money-maker that would attract customers.

“It is also bringing fun back into shopping and providing a boost to the inner city," Mr Anderson said.

The price-slide was instigated by the store's new managing director, Mr Ron Friedman. Mr Friedman, an American, adapted the idea after seeing it work successfully in the United States. There crowds would sleep out when big firms such as Sears Roebuck had goods nearing the end of the slide.

Mr Friedman has introduced other ideas as part of a campaign to revitalise the business. It is planned to hold exhibitions and start dancing and yoga classes for customers at the High Street store.