"No VAT rises" & "Sales special offers"

[rs1952]

andy43 said:

If you shop with the big companies eg Thomas Cook holidays, Currys, B&Q, Next etc, by walking in off the street, generally You Will Be Shafted.
They are counting on no real knowledge of prices - the twice-last-year's-price holiday is a classic example.
They put a sign up saying 'woohoo it's cheap', and people fall over themselves to buy.
Works in every single aisle in Tesco.
Everything in the above shops can be bought cheaper/better/easier/pleb-free via internet or just 'doing your research'.

This applies to all retail outlets. They charge the rate that the market will bear.

In answer to the OP, your £4500 "discounted" holiday may well have cost £2750 last year, but they're not comparing their prices with last year are they? They are just telling you that this year's price has been discounted and that, possibly, some poor sod who bought at completely the wrong time may have paid even more.

I too heard that radio 2 item about wine just before Christmas and I can vouch for its accuracy. The problem is, unless you are well experience in these matters and/or buy a lot of the stuff you just don't know how good the stuff in the bottle actually is, and you tend to think (or rather the supermarkets let you think) that "more expensive equals better."

There is one particular brand of Californian white that I stop going sour on a regular basis. It is usually in the range £6.99 to £8.99 in the two well known supermarkets close to me. Sometimes they "discount" it in one of them to £5.69 or thereabouts in a blaze of publicity. My local frozen food retailer also has an alcohol section and they have been putting out the same stuff at 3 for £12.00 for some months.

The Trades Descriptions Act stops retailers telling downright lies. It does not stop them pulling stunts like the ones being mentioned in this thread.

Caveat Emptor still applies.

[Deva Link]

Corsair7 said:

We paid £2750 for our holiday last summer where as the same holiday now costs £4500 according to their web site, whilst claiming prices are lower now due to the 'sales'.

Holidays generally look a lot more expensive this year than last.