Les soldes

In what has now become a personal tradition, I’ve just missed les soldes yet again. It’s not as if I don’t know when they are. The dates of les soldes are fixed by law. Les soldes d’hiver (Winter Sales) and les soldes d’été (Summer Sales) are decreed for specific 5 week periods every year. Les soldes d’hiver begin the second Wednesday of January at 8 a.m. (unless this falls after the 12th in which case they start the first Wednesday of January) and end Tuesday February 9th at midnight.
Sales were instituted during the mid-nineteenth century. This is when department stores arrived, turning shopping into a leisure time activity (for those who had leisure time) and wreaking havoc on small merchants who couldn’t compete with the luxury or the variety of these new stores. Zola’s novel le Bonheur des Dames (published in English under the title The Ladies’ Delight) gives a vivid account of this change in French commercial practices. Since the wider variety of goods available meant more chance of unsold stock at the end of the season, the department stores began to have systematic end-of-season sales, undercutting the small merchants even more.
Thus, in 1906 the first law concerning Seasonal Sales was passed – not so much to protect the consumer as to save small businesses. This law was revised in 1991. The Legal Duration of Sales was instituted in January 1997 and, in 2008, Measure 17 of the Law for the Modernisation of the Economy adapted the legislation concerning les soldes once more.
The objectives of this measure were
•to simplify the system “in a context of loyal competition” (though for the first time ever merchants were allowed to sell one or more products at a loss under certain conditions)
•to provide more sales periods during the year (as well as the two national sales periods I’ve mentioned, merchants can now individually determine two other weeks of sales during the year.)
•to permit merchants to dynamise their sales and reduce their stock without the risk of legal penalty (Previously, stores which held sales in periods other than those authorized could be fined.)
The 2008 law also mentioned internet sales for the first time. Emile Zola would have been enthralled.
Some women take a vacation day on the first or last day of les soldes, after reconnoitring their favorite stores beforehand. Merchants usually start the period by offering a 20% to 40% discount on their sales articles. During the third week they may offer 50% or 60% on slow-moving articles. In February, you often see 70% or 80%-off signs. Avid sales–goers have to gamble that the articles they want will still be available when the prices plunge. All very exhilarating if you are a recreational shopper.




One of my problems is that I am not. But the other is my double life. The two national sales periods both coincide with my comings and goings – just not a good time for me to shop. This year, les soldes began the day I arrived back in Paris. I was so busy for the first three weeks that I couldn’t have fit anything else into my schedule. During the fourth week, I recovered from my previous hyperactivity. I really did intend to go to at least one store during the last week but came down with stomach flu instead.
My consolation is that, thanks to Measure 17, I’ll be able to take advantage of the two weeks of “floating sales”. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.