The sales give customers¹ the opportunity to obtain cheaper products like clothes, shoes, jewellery and so on. Meanwhile, shops sell their winter or summer stocks. But, are people tempted to overspend and buy too many things?

The winter sales start on 7th January in Spain. Before that day people have already bought Christmas presents and some clothes for this time of the year which they needed urgently. For this reason, we think that most of us buy products on a whim², not from necessity. Most people’s wardrobes are full of clothes and the fact is that we don’t use all of them.

First of all, we have to buy in shops whose prices we can afford. Nowadays, there are hundreds of low-cost brands which sell cheap trendy apparel³, such as Zara, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Primark, Bershka, H&M… In addition, there are brands which are a little more expensive like Levi’s, Brownie, Ese o Ese, Mus Bombon, Subdued, GAP, Nike, Calvin Klein, Pepe Jeans, Hollister, Superdry, Blauer, Brandy Melville… which offer higher quality clothes. Instead of buying four twenty-euro pairs of trousers in Pull&Bear, you could buy only one pair of Levi’s for 80 euros.

Secondly, our wardrobe space is not unlimited! So, we have to get rid of⁴ old clothes and the ones we don’t use or don’t like. A good way of doing this is donating them to charities. In this way, we are creating some space in the wardrobe and at the same time, these organisations will find a second life for the clothes.

Lastly, when we consider whether to buy a garment⁵ in the sales or not, we have to think if we already have something similar, look at the price, how often we will wear it, the quality of the fabric⁶, how much we like it and how easy it is to combine it with other clothes, colours and prints. Paying attention to all of these aspects is being responsible about our shopping.

In conclusion, we believe that the sales are the opportunity for the customers to acquire⁷ cheaper products, which they really need, from a wide range of brands⁸. Moreover, we think that the sales can be the perfect excuse for people to renew their wardrobes, change their clothing style and get rid of old clothes. It is always a good idea to donate them to charities, both of us do this and it is very satisfying!

Gemma Alari  and  Mar Valle

Vocabulary list

• Customers¹ → Clients
• Whim²→ Capritx
• Apparel³→ Roba
• Get rid of⁴ → Desfer-se d’alguna cosa.
• Garment⁵ → Peça (de roba)
• Fabric⁶ → Teixit
• To acquire⁷ → Obtenir, comprar.
• Brands⁸ → Marques