Spend Spend Spend

June 3, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
3 Comments

Times are hard. Money is tight. So now’s the time to spend more cash.

It seems that the rising cost of living and increases in interest rates have forced retailers to dramatically reduce prices and plan for long term discounting to lure us back to the cash registers.

DESPERATE retailers are slashing prices to the bone at mid-year sales starting today in an effort to lure spending-shy shoppers into their stores.

Despite news that retail sales rose in April for the second month running, the deep discounts are set to continue all the way to Christmas. –
News.com.au

I feel for the retailers, I really do, and I’d love to help them out, but rather than being enticed by shiny things I don’t really need at lower than normal prices, I think I might just try to concentrate on putting food on the table for my family.

I think I’ll just have to ask them to get back to me when they’re offering everything free.



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Back to School Sales

January 23, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
5 Comments

pencil_sharpeners.jpgI wish I was still at school.

Thirty years ago, when I was going to school, the Back to School Sales were all about exercise books, grey school clothes, crayons, Bata Scouts and pencil cases.

I always hated going shopping in the weeks before school returned because there would be ‘Back to School’ signs hanging everywhere, mocking me, reminding me that my freedom would soon be over.

How things have changed. I see there’s an advertisement in the newspaper today for Back to School Specials which include an eighteen hundred dollar high definition video camera, a laptop computer and widescreen televisions which cost anywhere from two thousand to nine thousand dollars.

I’m not quite sure what the connection to going back to school could possibly be but if that’s the kind of thing you need for school these days I might just have to re-enrol.



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Back to School goes upmarket

January 29, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
3 Comments

pencils.jpgHaven’t times changed?

The Australian school year is just getting underway after several weeks of summer holidays. Everywhere you look there are signs and advertisements for ‘Back to School Sales’.

I remember years ago when the ‘Back to School Sales’ would be all about getting a good price on crayons, coloured pencils, school bags, lunch boxes and the occasional great deal on Bata Scouts.

I was flicking through today’s paper and looking at the back to school deals on offer. While some shops still offer discounted prices on school stationery, I spotted a number of back to school deals on laptop computers and the like.

I guess that computers are becoming more and more a necessity for students but we certainly won’t be shelling out for a $1500 laptop for Emily or James anytime soon.

Our poor kids will have to continue battling on with our old 900 Celeron desktop. It’s several years old but it still seems to do the job …. most of the time.



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From giving to greed

December 27, 2007
by Rodney Olsen
6 Comments

How can it turn around so quickly? One day we’re buying the line that giving is better than receiving; the next day we’re buying anything we can get our hands on.

How is it that we can talk about how wonderful it is to give to others when we know that just a day later we’ll be spending much, much more on ourselves.

On Christmas Day we celebrate with friends and family and talk about how awful it is that Christmas has been over commercialised, yet 24 hours later we’re lining up at shopping centres ready to send our credit cards into meltdown. It would seem that we’re not so averse to commercialism at this time of year after all, or are we happy to be ‘non-commercialised’ for just one day a year?

Most cities around Australia start their big sales on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. We wait an extra day and that always seems to be a good reason to grumble. Each year we see people on TV talking about how awful it is that they have to wait an extra 24 hours before they max out their credit cards. They think it would be better all around if those who work in the retail industry only had the one day off for Christmas to recover from the extra stress of last minute Christmas shoppers before they face the barrage of post-Christmas shoppers.

In a first this year, the shops in Fremantle were open on Boxing Day so that people could get their shopping fix. Thousands of people flocked to the port city to grab a bargain.

Have we really become that addicted to consumerism that we can’t relax with our families for an extra few hours? Do we really need to fill our homes with extra ‘stuff’ that much and that soon?

I enjoy getting a bargain as much as anyone but I have no real desire to be crammed in next to thousands of other people, all wanting to be served at once. I have enough self-control and patience to wait a week or two until it all calms down.



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