By the time this edition of Asian Voice lands on your doormats, Christmas would be over and the streets and shops will become overcrowded with people on a shopping spree at the sales.
In these hard times, one would have thought that people would be vary of wasting money. As if the the spending spree at Christmas was not enough, now the great sales have started and the shop till you drop culture will take on.
People will flock in droves to the high streets to undergo a retail therapy through bargain hunting. But where is the money coming from? People buy on tick by borrowing from banks, financial institutions or pawn brokers and pay-day loans without thinking that the money borrowed has eventually to be paid with exorbitant interest charges.
So people will borrow more to pay the debt and thus the vicious circle will continue revolving. We go to sales for bargain hunting and come away with things which we did not need but we buy them because we think we have grabbed a bargain by getting them at a cheaper price.
Sale or no sale, one must haggle by asking for discounts and most of the time one can strike a bargain and come away with goods either at a lower price or receive additional benefits in cash or kind. It is indeed necessary to haggle for a bargain price otherwise we fork out much more than the item’s worth.
Dinesh Sheth
Newbury Park, Ilford
