This year, the 2023 winter sales will start on Wednesday January 11 and end on Tuesday February 7. In the midst of inflation, the French may take the opportunity to renew their winter wardrobe at low prices and look for bargains. As a reminder, these four weeks of sales are set by the decree of May 27, 2019 and this period is not intended to be extended except in exceptional cases.
If you want to be the first to find the best deals and spend your Christmas gifts, know that the start of the 2023 winter sales on the internet will be launched on January 11, 2023 at 8 a.m. You can therefore prepare your basket in advance the day before with your favorite items in order to validate it the next morning at the right time. You can do some window shopping ahead of time to spot the best items. So are you going to take advantage of the winter sales after Black Friday or are the usual promotions pushing you to abandon these winter promotional offers?
Buyers are not there. The winter sales began on Wednesday January 12 and health circumstances and the mandatory implementation of teleworking three days a week are weighing on attendance. The director of the Les Halles shopping center, Hugo Rey, assures Le Monde that attendance is “almost identical to the first day of the 2019 winter sales”, but many traders deplore “empty” corridors. “The latest government communications alerting to the extreme contagiousness of the virus currently circulating create an anxiety-provoking context for traders and consumers”, assures in a press release the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Paris-Ile-de-France. Emmanuel Le Roch, general delegate of Procos, also recognizes that “the conditions for holding the winter sales are not optimal”.
The winter sales have already started in France! Postponed to January 20 instead of 6 last year because of the pandemic with numerous administrative closures imposed, the winter sales will not be postponed this time this year. In 2022, the winter sales will therefore take place over four weeks between January 12, from 8 a.m., and February 8. This period of four weeks, compared to six previously, applies to all French departments under the Pacte law.
On the other hand, even if the dates of the sales are the same for the vast majority of departments, there are however a few exceptions. Some departments adapt their sales periods, which start before the rest of the territory, to align with neighboring Belgium and Luxembourg. This is particularly the case in Moselle, Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Vosges where the winter sales began on Monday January 3 and will last four weeks until Sunday January 30.
Despite the health situation and the start of the school year, “we had a lot of people this morning, it’s a good first day of sales”, rejoiced with AFP Jérôme Pinard, director of the Marques avenue factory store. in Talange (Moselle). The merchant expects “intense” attendance for this weekend, with extended opening hours.
Ten years ago, due to their geographical position, traders from Lorraine obtained early winter sales in other departments to be able to fight against competition from Luxembourg, where the sales also began on Monday 3 January.
“It’s important to be on good terms with our cross-border friends to allow our local customers to also benefit from the sales in our stores and avoid seeing our customers leave to spend elsewhere”, specifies Jérôme Pinard. Beyond the departments of the Grand-Est, there are other departments which escape the rule and have derogatory winter sales dates.
Indeed, according to the website of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF), in Guadeloupe the dates of the winter sales are set from January 1 to January 28, 2022. They will take place from January 19 to February 15, 2022 included in the overseas collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and from February 5 to March 4, 2022 included in Reunion.
If the sales apply to physical stores as well as on the internet, many brands are taking advantage of the start of the school year to organize promotions or private sales in advance with many markdowns. This can therefore harm merchants and winter sale receipts. Last year, the results were disappointing for businesses with sales down 9% compared to 2019.
The DGCCRF (Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consumption et de la Répression des Frauds) reminds us of this every year: the sales period is conducive to the multiplication of scams that are often difficult to detect. The announcement of a discount does not necessarily mean that the purchase is worth it: unscrupulous merchants raise their prices just before the sales to offer apparently greater reductions. To avoid or report false discounts, it is best to prepare your purchases before the sales by tracking down, and without hesitating to take screenshots to keep track of the offers consulted.
It is also necessary to be attentive to incidental costs which could increase the overall price and make the purchase less interesting: costs of preparing the package, delivery costs, administrative costs… So be careful.