Zeusblog

We were walking past Blacks yesterday and saw a sign saying, “Closing Down Sale”. It surprised us as neither of us had heard that Blacks were in trouble. It turns out that they aren’t in trouble, although perhaps they should be with the Advertising Standards Authority – or even Trading Standards. Blacks isn’t closing down at all, they’re just stopping selling winter and skiwear for the season.

So the sign should really say ‘End of Season Sale’. But someone at Blacks has obviously got their finger on the consumer pulse (and no qualms about misleading people) and knows that ‘Closing Down’ brings out the vulture in shoppers and that we are more likely to go in if we think they are desperate. It brought out the vulture in Julia and I, so we went in. We were a bit miffed at first that they were being so blatantly deceptive. But do you know what? It worked. Not only did it get us in the shop, we both bought something. There’s a moral about lack of morals in there somewhere.