Its Sale time from January 6, 2010 – Les Soldes d’hiver sont là

In France, sale periods ( ” Les Soldes”) in shops are determined by law.. Yes, well theoretically, since as we know, a shop owner will find it difficult to have the governement decide when he or she can cut prices on her merchandise. So they’ve found ways to bypass the official legislation.

The Official Sale Dates – in French: “Les Periodes des Soldes”

So there are two official five week sale periods, one for the winter, one for the summer. In the winter, they are to begin, the second Wednesday of the year, i.e. January 6 th for 2010.
In the summer, they are to begin the last Wednesday in June, i.e, the 30th of June in 2010.

If a shopkeeper wishes to organize “ random sales” ( ” Soldes flottants “), i.e, a two week sale period when he or she desires, she must send in a registered mail request to an administration at least one month before the “random sale ” begins and they must be over at least one month before the official sale period begins. Hmm… I wonder how many shopkeepers use the procedure?

Enter Promotions ( same word in French) and ” Private Sales ” (” Soldes Privées”), an alternative to the official Sale dates

Shop owners have found ways to get around this stringent legislation, by having what they call ” promotions” when they desire throughout the year. Whew!

They are officially recognized by the law since 2008 ( whereas they were punished prior to that) but they must follow the following rules so as not to be deemed Sales in disguise… (Oh! Oh!)

> They must be for a limited time period
> The merchant must be able to provide the products or services at the sale price at all times during the promotion period.

The merchant can bypass this difficulty by indicating: ” Promotion valid while the product is available” but her promotion advertising must cease the second one of the promotion items is out of stock. Scary life, that of a French merchant. You understand the angry looks now?

Hence, promotions often take the form of : ” Buy 2 items, get the 3rd one free” kind of deals. They are also advertised to a client list, via email or mail, therefore avoiding to advertise the deal too loudly to governement employees.

The other loophole merchants have found to lower prices when desired is to hold ” Private Sales“, or ” Soldes Privées“. There again, the principle is that they are available only to past clients. These days all shop keepers have these, generally a week or two before the official sale period.

So get on your favorite store’s client list if you’d like to get a first grab at those sale prices!

– > in French: Precise legislative text on “Les Soldes”, including the numerous regional exceptions…

– > in French: Legislative text on “Les Promotions”.

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