Boxing Day Sales 2013 List, But Are the Sales of 2013 Real?

Personal_Finance / Shopping Dec 25, 2013 - 12:03 PM GMT

Praise the lord for without Jesus there would be no 75% discounts! Britain's cathedrals of consumerism look set to be full to bursting point on Boxing day as bargain hunters resume celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ after a day of partial rest (online shopping) by maxing out their credit cards on asian sweat shops produced goods. Unlike the 50% sales in the lead up to Christmas Eve, these should represent the REAL SALES that for many stores started online late Christmas eve, as Christmas day shopping seamlessly continues into the shopping malls early Thursday morning and thus not even a storm damaged and disrupted transport network will be able to stop Britain's shopping zealots from securing their piece of the consumer sales relics of 2013.

Shoppers in Meadowhall, Sheffield - Praising the Lord for Deep Discounts

Are the Sales of 2013 Real?

Unlike the great sales of 2008 when many retailers were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy that would claim many such as Woolworth's and Comet, and thus were panicked into offering real deep discounts of as much as 90% to quickly offload stock to boost cash-flows. Instead, now we have a strong UK economic recovery underway that is resulting in an highly engineered sales season which started off with over inflated prices calculated to generated discounts of as much as 75% so that items can still be sold at a hefty profit margin.

So whilst the mainstream press blindly carry's headlines of across the board 70% discounts, an actual analysis of the 25 goods that I have been tracking over the past month, only clothing as of Christmas Eve is showing a significant price drop, everything else is virtually UNCHANGED. So many shoppers can expect to be disappointed if not hoodwinked into buying goods on Boxing day that are UNCHANGED in price compared to that of a month ago, apart from clothing and christmas seasonal items such as sweets, decorations and gifts.

In fact one could consider that in most cases a real sale is only where something is stated as being sold at MORE than 50% off.

Note sales are typically 50% off unless otherwise specified.

Online sales that started Christmas Eve

* Start times refer to Christmas Eve

Argos - Extends and expands Discounts to 75% off online from midnight .
Boots - online only
B&Q
John Lewis 50% off sale - Online only from 5pm
Halfords - Online only.
Homebase - Online only - 60% off.
Harrods - Online only from 6pm
Harvey Nichols - Online
Debenhams - Online only at Midnight.
House of Fraser - Online only from 12pm
Marks and Spencer Online from 5pm
Matalan - online only
NEXT - Online only from 3pm
New Look - online only - 60% off.
PC World / Curry's - Online only from 7pm
Toys R Us - online only.

SALES Starting Christmas Day - Wednesday 25th Dec

Amazon - from 8am - approx 1/3rd off on approx 1000 items.

SALES Starting Boxing Day - Thursday 26th Dec

Asda - until 26th Jan.
Banana Republic
Body Shop
Boots
Debenhams - Starts 7am.
Dorothy Perkins
French Connection
GAP
John Lewis 50% off sale - In selected stores from 9.30am
Habitat
Harvey Nichols
Harrods from 10am
Homebase
House of Fraser - starts 8am
Liberty
Matalan
Monsoon - At least 30% off
New Look - 60% off.
PC World / Curry's
Next - In store starts 6am.
Selfridges
Toys R Us

SALES Starting Friday 27th Dec

John Lewis 50% off sale - All stores

SALES ALREADY IN PROGRESS

Asos - online sale only - Upto 50% off
Argos upto 50% off on Toys
BHS - Upto 50% off
Boden - Online only - Upto 70% off
Clarks - Upto 50% off
Dorothy Perkins - Upto 50% off
Debenhams - Limited - Upto 50% off
GAP - 60% on selected items.
IKEA - Upto 33% off
Habitat - Limited products upto 50% off
House of Fraser - Toys only - Upto 75% off
Homebase - Upto 50% off
H&M - Upto 70% off
Laura Ashley
Marks and Spencer - Knitwear - 30%
Matalan - Upto 50% off
New Look - Upto 60% off
Next Clearance Sale on selected items Upto 50% off
Oasis
Sainsbury's - Upto 60% off Technology
TK Maxx
Top Shop - Upto 50% off
Very.co.uk - Upto 70% off
Wallis - Upto 50% off
WH Smith

* Check back for the Market Oracle's latest article update.

SALES Tips

Compare prices on your internet smartphone before buying.
The biggest reductions come towards the end of the sales season, i.e. Christmas stock can go from 33% off to 50% off to 70% off to 80% off over the week after Christmas.
Use a cash back credit card such as Capital One Circle to earn cash back.
Make a list of items that you really need to prevent buying of junk.
Look for discount vouchers in newspapers.
Look for discounts vouchers online, many sites and app's have sprung up over the year.
Set yourself a budget and don't go over it.
Don't get into debt, there is no point saving 25% in the sales then paying 25% and beyond interest on purchases during 2014!
And the best discounts can be found on Ebay during January as people offload unwanted gifts and purchases to pay down Christmas debt.

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Source and Comments: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article43715.html

Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of four ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series.that can be downloaded for Free.

Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 600 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

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