What Price Those Holiday Bargains?

No one in the media ever reports that all the retailers’ claims about having to slash prices on goods before Christmas “much deeper than ever before at this time of year” are groundless, even after the tragedy of Sept. 11. Each year at Christmas, retailers sing this same refrain, but after the markdown, prices on identical or equivalent items of apparel remain exactly the same as they were year after year in the past. Or sometimes more.

No wonder shoppers in malls appear to hang back. When they went out looking for those big bargains they’d heard about in the news, they discovered sweats, dress shirts, jeans and Dockers and women’s apparel cost exactly what they have for years after the much-lamented “big new cuts” to lure buyers.

With the average markup on apparel at 80%, retailers don’t hurt if they mark clothing down a mere 25% or even a better 40%, even after they’ve covered costs of labor and overhead.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing for the media reporting these “big never-before-seen markdowns” before Christmas to actually go out to check on these claims by comparison shopping on items of apparel these reporters bought last year for their families? But then it would be too clear--there was no difference, and should have been no story.

Kaye Klem

Mission Viejo