Do shops ever just realise that their clearance section is not clearing and just reduce the stock to a rock bottom price to get rid?

[Ridingaroundonbuses]

I mean M&S have their final clearance yellow sticker period but what about other shops? I’ve literally seen the same blouse in a clearance section at the same price for over a year. Would it not be better to reduce to a
price like £30 just so that it ends up from the shop floor?

I worked in Clarkes as a Saturday girl at one time when I was at school and we'd trot out the same sale items year after year until they were pretty much antiques 😂

The plan is to shift items off the main shelves to get new product on them.

As long as there is enough space in clearance to fit any products being shifted out then it doesn't matter if stuff takes forever to sell.

I think lots of shops ship off to factory outlet type places eventually. I suspect a lot of stuff also ends up being dumped with labels cut out. I haven't been to the Next sale since my kids were little but they were terrible at wheeling out some lurid crap alongside the normal reductions for the January sale.

Some places will donate to charity. I used to volunteer at Oxfam and we regularly got boxes and boxes from M&S which was sale stock which hadn't sold (mostly size 22 or 24 in the most awful fabrics/patterns) but also multipacks which people had split. We also had about - no exaggeration - 100 boxes from Zara which was internet returns. Also donations in the past from Speedo, Ted Baker. I have seen Nobody's Child ex-sale stock in my local Barnardos. The Original Factory Store (TOFS) appears to have bought up Joanie's stock, I have also seen things in the past in there from Joules.

The sheer amount of stock though is the issue, we have enough surplus clothing on this planet for the next 6 generations or something crazy and you still have the fast fashion industry churning out hundreds of thousands of items a day.

I think shops don’t want to be seen to reduce down to £3 or whatever for numerous reasons - for example, they may worry that people will hold off buying at full price or at “normal” sale prices in the hope that it will eventually be available at rock bottom price. Plus storage and shelf space as pp say. And it calls attention to mistakes they have made eg that lime green trouser suit that never took off.

Therefore, they’d rather sell off to outlet companies and sell things cheap quietly. Or even give to charity shops.

That said, a lot more clothing companies are now doing outlet or “archive” sales on their website - especially the more expensive brands - these still don’t reduce down very low but can be 50-70% off original (high) price.

M&S went through a period, a few years ago, of bringing Sale clothing down to a few pounds (more than 70% off). There would be a random rack(s) with loads of bargains (you’d be lucky to find a diamond in the rough) but they’ve stopped doing it.

Having worked in marketing / retailing, it cheapens the brand to discount too deeply. But I agree, stock would shift if they just slashed it. They still need to make profit, though. I always watch out for brand new items in charity shops, especially when a brand folds.

House of Fraser often has the last few sizes of something down to £10 or less on their website.

I worked in TKMaxx many years ago, this would have been around 2003. We reduced all sale stock to 20p just to clear it. I'm not sure if they'd do that these days!

I worked for a fashion brand that brought out "new items" each year just styled differently, when actually theyd had them for 6 years in boxes collecting dust.

I now own a fashion brand, if things really aren't selling, I put them at cost price. Would rather get my money back than keep them taking up soace for years on end.

Some shops have an Ebay clearance shop. river island do, have got some real bargains on there but sizes tend to be xs or xxxxl.