Drop-dead Discounts

But sales these days are hard to resist, even for the snobbiest among us. For starters, the markdowns are genuine, it isn’t just clearing out last-season’s stock for slightly less. Rips and tears are always left behind on the racks, so fewer merchandisers are bothering with putting them on display. And with so much new money hanging off our arms (who doesn’t own a Louis Vuitton today?), an older acquisition seems so much classier.

A few friends and I have now mastered shopping the sales. One of my clever pals picks up

several things she likes and leaves them in the men’s section of the store until she makes up her mind. I plead guilty for only queuing up at the cashier at the men’s section; the lines are still smaller and quicker.

Another friend has made friends with the staff at Zara and Vero Moda, so she can avail of their staff discount. Then there’s also Facebook: ‘like’ a store’s online page and help yourself to their ‘off’ first.

A girl in image management confides that big purses and high heels deter other customers from coming within your personal space (“It sounds silly, but it absolutely intimidates others,” she swears).

The last three days of the sale are a merchandises’s secret: this is when the crowd is at its thinnest, and the last stocks arrive on the shelves.

Moreover, Netaporter.com has spoilt all of us. If

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