Contrary to what we heard, which were tales of queues and an inability to find anything remotely worth even a penny, the 1p sale was “so well recieved” last time that it’s been bought back in the run-up to Christmas.

And of course, it’s all about giving the customer a great deal, and not about M&S getting rid of a load of stock it couldn’t sell and generating a bit of exposure and footfall before Christmas.

We’d love to hear from you if you were able to get something good for 1p in the last sale, or whether you’ll be trying again this time.

M&S 1p Sale Returns was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

Despite its well publicised woes (or perhaps because of), Woolworths is the latest retailer to have a pre-Christmas sale.

But don’t get too excited by the big 50% off signs in the window – this is an “up to” deal, so not everything is half price, most stock appears to be discounted by 10%-20%.

If that doesn’t put you off, if you’re reading this then you’re probably already too late to get your hands on the best stuff – the shelves in our local Woolworths are looking rather empty, with there apparently being little chance of them getting restocked – suppliers are unlikely to want to send stock to a store that’s about to go out of business.

Still tempted? Then be prepared to queue – the lines are like nothing I’ve seen before, even before Christmas in previous years. If they weren’t going bankrupt it would look like it was going to be a bumper Christmas for Woolies. Or at least it looks as if they are going to go bump with a bang. They probably want to clear as much stock off the shelves as they can before they’re finally shut down.

Also, one other gripe – their posters say that the recent VAT cut is included in the discount, with an exclamation mark at the end, suggesting this is an even better deal. I may be reading it incorrectly, but I would have thought a better deal for the customer would be if the VAT cut was on top of the sale price?

photo credit: benleto

Woolworths: (Up To) 50% Off was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

Well, both Dorothy Perkins and Burton are doing a similar thing, having 20% off, 2-day sale this Thursday and Friday.

Of course, the normal warnings about unnecessary spending apply.

20% Off At Dorothy Perkins & Burton was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

In a desperate attempt to get people spending gesture of goodwill in the run up to Christmas, M&S are having a one-day sale, with 20% off many items (womenswear, menswear, wine & champagne, but of course not their profitable products, such as food).

Despite all of the publicity this is getting, there are other retailers doing similar things, take a look at Debenhams and House Of Fraser who also have big sales on. It’s likely to be a common trend this festive period.

Just remember though, just because something has a 20% discount, it doesn’t mean it’s a good deal, or that you need it!

photo credit: Paul Bland

20% Off At Marks & Spencer was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

As This Is Not Work points out, seeing the words “up to” and “from” in advertising, and retail in general, usually means “come and waste an awful lot of time rummaging through tat we can’t sell because no one in their right mind would want it – and if you find the one thing at the ‘up-to-from’ discount, congratulations, you’ve won the prize.”

But if you do need to do some department store shopping, they’re worth checking out – just don’t get sucked in to taking out one of their store cards to pay for the items when the shop assistant inevitably tries to sign you up. It’ll cost you the earth. Many shop assistants have targets for the number of people they sign up to the store cards, and some are less than careful about who they offer them to. 

http://www.debenhams.com

http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk

Up To 70% Off At House of Fraser & Debenhams was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.