Shoppers of the world, unite!

Is it my imagination, or is there already a whiff of desperation in the air at shopping malls?

It's a little strange: the shopkeepers insist that they haven't experienced a decline in business brought on by continued interest rate hikes and petrol-price increases, and economic uncertainty.

Yet I swear service seems to be improving. Almost every shop has something on special even though it's not the official time for sales, and outside of the formal shopping environment more and more options are emerging when it comes to finding fashion.

Finally, we consumers are in a position to expect more from retailers as they inevitably start to feel the pinch. For those who are able to keep shopping, it's time to demand a better deal.

South Africa has never been much of a demanding consumer nation and, although we love to moan among ourselves about rip offs and rude salespeople, we rarely act.

Since the day the late Isabel Jones gave up her column, championing the rights of shoppers, it seems as if we have lost our will to fight and we let those retail rip-offs steam along unchallenged.

And even if we don't feel like putting up a fight, we decline to vote with our feet and continue to shop at places that we know do not deserve our custom.

But now that the economy is squeezing all of us, perhaps it's time to make the tough trading climate work to our advantage and ask for customer satisfaction in return for our money.

I, for one, have made a few of my own fashion resolutions:

I will not buy another thing from shops that do not train their assistants or do not offer any assistance at all.

I will not support shops that use those thin plastic bags that I'm pretty sure have been banned. In fact, isn't it time to demand a total ban on free plastic shopping bags? If China can do it, surely we can.

I will not buy shoes in Rosebank again, when I know I can buy exactly the same brand for 20percent less at the Oriental Plaza.

I will not ask for the price of an unmarked item again. If a retailer can't be bothered to label goods, I can't be bothered to ask.

I will not try on any item of clothing that is marked “one size fits all”. There is no such thing.

I will not shop in chain stores that sell the same bland labels as everyone else. I will support retailers who do the legwork and find new and interesting fashion items.

I will explore affordable online shopping opportunities. There must be someone out there who has found a way of side-stepping the whole mall rental issue and can sell me fashion more reasonably than at Sandton and Cavendish prices?

I will go to all those trunk shows I get invited to. At least there the prices will not be pushed up due to overheads.

Like me, you may not be up to becoming a consumer activist, but we certainly have the opportunity to ask more from retailers.

I'm pretty sure they're all in their boardrooms right now, drawing up strategies on how to navigate the troubled seas of a looming recession. Let's give them some ideas.

Because the one thing they can be sure of is that women will not stop shopping altogether — they're just going to start shopping smart.

To quote Style.com, just as the women in war-time Paris managed to look incredibly glamorous, we are certain to see a will to dress up in tough times.

But we're going to make those retailers work to make a sale.

Source: The Times

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