to expect retailers NOT to be clearing Christmas stock 5 days BEFORE Christmas?

[gaelicsheep]

What is going on. Half price clearance sales already? Shops have sold out of most stuff when I'm just wanting to buy it.

I have no wish to abide by the retail calendar, which puts Easter in January and Christmas in October. I wish to shop for Christmas in December. Can anyone explain this madness?

But pre-Xmas sales have been a retailing staple for years. Certainly pre-dating the economic woe we are now experiencing.

And your argument is what exactly - half-price sales, before xmas -

Yesterday, they had run out of jars of mince meat in my local (humungous) Tesco !

Do they think I was ready to make any pies before now??

Well, they won't be able to shift it after Christmas will they. Makes sense to them

My point is they are not re-stocking Christmas stock! It's not important, but in Mothercare they do musical bibs. Really naff, but I really wanted one for a friend who's child's name is Christmassy. Can't get one for love nor money because they've cleared them out. It's the same story everywhere with all the Christmas tat. It is really really stoopid. Excess Christmas stock used to be cleared in January to be picked up by canny shoppers for the next Christmas.

complaining about a sale?why

Because they are not thinking about the customers who might actually want to buy this stuff in the week before Christmas. Sale, fine, but don't run out of everything with several days to go.

I can't believe no one else thinks this is ridiculous! Or p'raps there's only a problem where I live?

shops sell by margins and projections costs them to store goods and unsold xmas stuff is lost profit also so seasonal and specific they want shot of it now.better for them to pile it high and discount,and given current financial woes i imagine fair few be happy to see sale sigh

I'd be more than happy if they were in fact "piling it high"!

It's the 21st December. There are only 3 days left. They need rid of their stock or they'll lose money. If you have particular things you wanted then you should have been more prepared. Only young single males shop this late!

I like shopping a week before christmas as every thing is on offer and i can get stuff that i want (if still in stock) for half the price!

They are doing things froma business point of view. Unfortunately they are there to make money, not to do what suits the customers, and this is how they make the most money.

My Mum thought I was worrying over nothing thi morning when I said I had got NO Christmas food in and had to go straight away.

She was wrong! I was whizzing round Tesco's snapping up the last of the hams and the last of the crackers!

I was happy that I saved a lot though...lots of half-price stuff...without the half-price things no way would I have got what I usually get.

Dansmommy - or, in fact, people with a new baby who've been staying away from home without a car and then been snowed in.

My problem started in the middle of last week - about 10 days before in fact.

Would you buy a festive sleepsuit with reindeer ears, etc, on the 26th of december in the sales?

See I have this old fashioned idea that retailers should think about their customers first and foremost. I get very angry about the way they do business, and sometimes I get so angry I simply have to post on MN about it. Then I get really really angry that you lot just accept it!

Discount on Christmas Eve - fine. If you want a sleepsuit with reindeer ears on Christmas Eve and they're sold out, fair play. But last week they should have been restocking, not clearing existing stock. In my humble opinion.

(I wouldn't buy a festive sleepsuit with reindeer ears at any time of year btw - the musical bib is a particular exception).

You have a new baby? Then you are not being unreasonable, and all retailers are bastards

why restock such seasonal specific items.that makes no sense,if its gone its gone.they dont want to store it for yr til xmas again.storage costs money

Well 6 months actually. But still sleeping like a newborn (ie not at all really).

Well it boils down to my pet hate that stores have no power over what is and isn't delivered to them. They should be able to request particular items that have sold out earlier than expected, but they can't because of the crazy centralised stock control. It winds me up time and time and time again.

of course they have power they have huge merchandising dept and buyers.high st retailers do.a just in time kind of system and electronic POS tells them what shifts

So why was my local Mothercare (that place again, sorry) out of stock of 0-3 months baby clothes of almost any kind for weeks on end? I should imagine they shift quite well. Something's wrong somewhere.

Anyhow, with the mood I'm in this could easily turn into a big rantfest on my part and I've got to get to bed.

get the blower to mc then instead of mn.email customer services