It struck me walking through Harrods, Selfridges, Liberty, Browns, Matches etc. how much stuff they still have on sale. Tonnes of it and all reduced. The savvy shopper doesn’t buy full price anymore when most of the stuff on sale is reduced at some point during the year. All the schmutter money can buy, all reduced and most still unsold is on sale should you want it. But what do the stores do with the stuff once the sales are over? There is talk that some of it is burnt in order to protect the brand. Odd when you think about it because in my mind brand protection is not about pilling high and selling low. It is completely the opposite. There must be mountains, or indeed landfill sites of luxury brand goods somewhere in the world- and I don’t mean at the discount villages on the outskirts of the major cities. And as China now becomes the focus of luxury brand retailers with an estimated growth in profits to something like $14.6 billion by 2015 more stuff will be produced. In reality it does not matter where the stuff goes all that really matters is that we begin to understand that the more that is produced the less of a luxury it really is.
