HIGH STREET MISERY

IN some parts of the mainland the shop sales started early in the New Year before the arrival of the Three Kings. In the Balearics they started yesterday after all of Majorca had bought their presents at a premium price. Many shoppers discovered to their horror yesterday that articles they had bought last week had been discounted by up to 50 percent.

This is so unfair, especially in these hard times. Why couldn´t the sales have started in the Balearics on January 2? It would have given shoppers some additional cheer and also saved them a considerable amount of money. Yesterday, bargain hunters were out in force snapping up many items which had been discounted by as much as 50 percent.

It appears that some have quite rightly waited for the sales to make all their purchases. It is the government which is in charge of setting the sales calendar in the Balearics. What they didn´t notice is that quite a number of the bigger stores had already slashed their prices to encourage shoppers. Retailers are having an exceptionally hard time and even the promise of no-interest loans hasn´t persuaded shoppers to go out and spend. Unfortunately the high street had an ideal opportunity to reward shoppers with a early sale which didn´t take place.