Junkie rush to the clearance illusion

Ethan Switch - Monday, 23 June 2003 - 05:54:22 - print it raw

Another weekend has passed and with it another load of merchandise slashed and rehashed to entice the wandering eyes of the window shoppers into the store and up to the cash registers.

Sales periods come around every few months to spur the movement of old stock in favour of space for the new. A conflict exists when the stores want the customers to consume all manner of developments, upgrades and higher buffed sheens while still having to find a reason for pushing the aging stock like the dealers cramming down free heroin down the gullets for the repeat business model to ring true. Taking the free hits the junkie neophytes stir into a fit and want more and more of the same, but the dealer no longer hands out the junk for free, money exchanges hands and the shaking of the skeleton is heard throughout.

And the old shelf stock is now obsolete or less worthy of the real estate it owns thanks to the new wares.

If a customer can be fooled into thinking that they're in time with the new hit, the dealer/retailer has staked a new soul. A depleted pile of the similar merchandise should be enough, unless the projected original height of the stack obscures the price of the product. A plan undone. A lie exposed.