It's definitely a tough environment out there in the retail world at the moment. There is alot of news and press attention on the high street and big names struggling. 

There was a programme on Channel 4 a few nights ago called Supershoppers Sales Special. It highlighted some of the tactics used by some of the bigger names when discounting and offering sales. 

For many years now I haven't had a New Years sale, although I used to love sales shopping personally (I haven't been for years) I don't like the idea of seeing items in the shops which had just been purchased as christmas gifts at a massively reduced price. It doesn't sit right with me morally. 

I therefore extended this into my business and I haven't held a sale after Christmas. Instead I generally do a sale early Spring when I know which toys I am going to disconitnue and which I am going to carry on with. The toys going into the sale are toys that I won't be stocking again, therefore a genuine clearance sale to make way for new toys. 

The TV programme highlighted many ways that big retailers have increased prices to enable them to reduce them at a later date and say they are in the sale. Or when "deals" are not true "deals" as the same items have been for sale at a cheaper price prior to the "deal" being made available. The Programme highlighted some big names, but i am sure it’s not just the the ones name.

Many online retailers have a standing 10% off code all year around. This is something I have done previously but again doesn’t sit with my values, if I can discount my prices all year around by 10% why not just reduce them by 10% for everyone, why not just set the price at what I want to sell the toys for? This is why you will not find an onging discount code for The Wooden Play Den available, I set prices that I feel are fair and reasonable and don't allow extra margin to take into account an all year around discount. 

I do like to reward loyalty and therefore I made the decision in 2018 to do giveaways and any special deals in the Facebook Group The Wooden Play Den Community. I love that I can offer this to my regular customers and they get something back for supporting me. 

I am committed to offering transparent pricing for the toys that I sell, you won't find ongoing, long discounts for my website. When I hold a sale the prices are genuinely reduced, and when I do offer special deals, it really will be for that special occasion and more often than not will be offered to my loyal customers either via my newsletter or via the Facebook Group, The Wooden Play Den Community.