a highly anticipated first sales weekend

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The sales kick off on Wednesday. Heavily affected by confinements during the past year, traders are betting a lot on this first weekend. And to attract customers, they put the small dishes in the big ones, while hoping that the weather is not too capricious. Some people do not hesitate to make strong markdowns from the start in an attempt to sell off stocks that have barely been used up.

Orange, violet, electric blue … Patrick has declined the overalls in all colors in the window of his Parisian boutique. He ensures that it will be the flagship piece of this summer. According to him, during the first days of the sales, customers flock to department stores, but take advantage of the weekend to come and hunt in small neighborhoods like his. “I’m very optimistic. I think it’s going to be a very good weekend. It’s going to rain it seems. I hope the storm won’t last long because if it does, we’re dead ! “, he blurted out.

Empty stocks

Rose didn’t see many people either during the first few days in her Parisian children’s shoe store. She is also counting on this weekend, because she absolutely has to start emptying stocks. “I have five back-to-school packages which have just arrived. We need to be able to make some room in reserve to be able to integrate the next collection,” she explains. “We cross our fingers to have movement at the customer level.” In the meantime, it is the summer collection that is highlighted with a special promotion on jellyfish, these plastic beach shoes.

On the window of Hélène’s ready-to-wear boutique in Lille, only one markdown is displayed in white: -50%. This manager has no choice, she too has to sell to make room. “With what we have just experienced and the overstocking linked to the two months of confinement, we have no other solution than to sit on our margin,” she explains. “Especially since the clearance sale is canceled, so we decided to do this.”

More serene customers

A few meters away in another clothing store, Véronique, the manager, has the feeling that there will be people for this first weekend of sales. “The clients are more motivated than last year, when there was more fear,” she notes. “We were not equipped, we did not know the barrier gestures … This year, we are used to everything. With the vaccination, people are more serene, customers come to the store more easily.”

More relaxed customers, and more spendthrift too, like Capucine who decided to have fun. “There, I blow the budget!”, She smiles. “It’s been a while since I took the time to get dressed. Everything is reopened, I admit that I want to make the most of it.”

But whatever the outcome of these summer sales, several traders believe that they will never make up for the shortfall due to confinements.

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