January Sales 2014 - Post Christmas 2013 High Street Sales List - Discount Voucher Codes?

Personal_Finance / Shopping Dec 27, 2013 - 01:02 AM GMT

Shop-till-you-drop looks set to continue all the way into January which was once upon a time the true start date for the holiday sales season that over the decades has meandered its way towards the end of November. Though of course most of these early sales are bogus, for these 50% off sales amount to nothing more than the original prices as the real sales only began online Christmas Eve and in store on Boxing day. Even then consumers need to be on their guard because it was very difficult if not impossible to capitalise on most of the discounts promoted, for instance many of the goods that you may have been interested in at for say 60% off have mysteriously become out of stock!

Still despite the tricks and gimmicks that retailers play with shoppers, there are real bargains to be had mainly in the buying of last seasons clothing, virtually everything else is either suspect or near impossible to capitalise upon.

Shoppers Praising the Lord for Discounts

Shoppers all over Britain (photo Meadowhall, Sheffield) could be seen in their thousands Praising the Lord to show them the way to the real discounts. Whilst many prominent christians could be seen on the broadcast news channels showing their indignation at the hijacking of the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Though, of course they have forgotten that it was Christians who hijacked the Roman winter solstice festival of Saturnalia in the first place as early Christianity played cut and paste with the facts as they transformed the worship of the coming of the Sun into the coming of the Son and so also goes virtually the whole of the Nativity story. Instead Christians would be best advised to direct their celebrations of the birth of Jesus to a day in early September.

Are the Sales of 2013 Real?

Is a question many shoppers returning from the boxing day sales will be asking themselves, especially as obscure online retailers could still have given them the same goods at a far cheaper price, though one runs the risk of falling prey to badly run online retailers that will end up giving customers the run around for many weeks if not months, so stick to the big names even if it costs a few percent extra.

In my opinion the vast majority of the sales if 2013 have been bogus as this has been the developing trend since the great sales of 2008 when many retailers teetered on the brink of bankruptcy as a consequence of Labours economic collapse 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, today the economy is much stronger than that which the economic data implies which 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 could still be sold at hefty profit margins.

Therefore consider this that in most cases a real sale is only where something is stated as being sold at MORE than 50% off.

Discount Voucher Code Sites Warning

A word of caution that according to my testing that most of the online discount voucher codes that are being touted on especially electrical goods during the sales season just do not work. They amount to nothing more the a sales technique to entice shoppers to visit retailer sites so as to generate a commission for the voucher site.

For instance a number of voucher codes for Curry's that voucher sites re-post from the curry's promotion's pages just do not work! As an example these are current codes direct from Curry's - http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/voucher-codes-2181-commercial.html

Discounts for Household Appliances

5% - OFF

5% off when you buy any fridge & freezer together (excl. products delivered directly by the manufacturer)

Use code FFR5 at checkout

Offer ends Mon 30th December, 2013

10%- OFF

10% off hobs when bought with any oven (excl. supplier delivered products)

Use code HOVEN10 at checkout

Offer ends Mon 30th December, 2013

10% - OFF

10% off when you buy an integrated fridge and integrated freezer together (excl. supplier delivered products)

Use code INFF10 at checkout

Offer ends Mon 30th December, 2013

In my experience and testing NONE of these voucher codes results in any extra discounting, so all that is happening is that the voucher codes site earns commissions in exchange for promoting curry's on the internet as you are being prompted to visit curry's online via the voucher sites links.

Online sales that Started Christmas Eve

* Note sales are typically 50% off unless otherwise specified.

* Start times refer to Christmas Eve

Amazon - from 8am - approx 1/3rd off on approx 1000 items.
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 that Started 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 that started Pre-Christmas Eve

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, though be on guard for fake vouchers that only generate commissions for the voucher site and no discounts.
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/Article43738.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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