Funny time to have a Sale

There’s been a lot of talk over the past couple of days about Debenhams’ start of season Sale, which is running this week. There’s certainly a bit of an irony in the Designers at Debenhams having their product on Sale before their mainline collections have even appeared at London Fashion Week.

In fact the Sale is a promotion which ran last year under a different guise in an attempt to attract PR, and it doesn’t sound like any of Debenhams rivals are following suit, other than John Lewis which has to price match.

So well done to Debs for grabbing shoppers’ attention with what is certainly an eye-catching promotion, but I can’t help but wonder why you’d have a Sale at this time of year. Sources close to the company say it’s nothing to do with having too much stock, but then why would you voluntarily give away margin at a time when everyone else is trading at full-price?

I don’t know the answer, but it seems at odds with Debenhams plans to focus on margin this year, especially as the word is that trading hasn’t been bad by any means - we’ll find out next week when the company reports to the City. But the Sale won’t help do much to help the perception that it’s a retailer which seems to be on Sale more often than not.