Trend of ‘Clearance Sales’ in clothing brands climbs down

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ISLAMABAD, Sep 29 (APP):Burning trend of weekly or monthly ‘clearance sales’ seemed to be climbing down as compared to last few years owing to the increase in sales tax on clothing brands in current budget.

General sales tax, varying from 14 per cent to 17 per cent from different brands, has actually lowered the capacity of middle and lower middle groups of the society to buy the branded clothes even from, often offered, clearance sales in different outlets and shopping malls.

Talking to APP, the sales manager of a famous clothing brand for women at a famous Mall of capital, said the purchasing power of middle class has lessened with increase in taxes.

“Although, we don’t charge the current General Sales Tax (GST) on the items from previous years and they are being sold as all inclusive, still the number of buyers from sales seems to be lower than expected”, he added.

He said these sales mostly target women as their potential customers. “During sales season, we used to call extra staff from our less busy branches, but this season it was normal selling week”, he added.

A regular buyer of these brands Ayesha said, “a large number of people still rely on these sales as they cannot afford costly brand new items”, she said.

Ayesha, an accounts officer in a local bank, said that slamming these items with increased tax has only helped the retailers and decreased the purchasing power of working class.

“Big clothing brands manipulate the public in the name of sales and sell the old items on new increased prices on the pretext of increased 17 per cent GST”, she added.

Terming this trend a blessing in disguise, Psychologist Dr Rizwan Taj said that this was becoming a never-ending race for women which were depicting an unhealthy social behavioural pattern. “Our social interactions were shrinking from “You look nice in this dress” to “Your dress is nice”, he added.

He said the problem was not with clothes. It’s that shift in values that was concerning. “Even those from humble background try and buy those expensive brands just to enjoy the luxury or maybe to lessen the guilt of being not able to compete with the rich in other aspects”, he said.

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