DON'T go shopping during January clearance sales! (Especially near Paris and factory outlet malls and especially on the weekend!)
We made this mistake yesterday. In France, stores are only allowed to have clearance sales twice a year, in January & July. It's a mad rush to the stores - think Black Friday but it lasts for a couple of weeks - with people trying to get the best deals.
We did NOT go on purpose for sales yesterday, but after church we stopped at the hardware store since it was on the way home and we needed a few things for the house. The hardware store is sandwiched between Ikea and the factory outlet mall. After fighting for a parking space and ending up in one that really wasn't a parking space, we stopped to eat at Quick (Belgian hamburger chain, similar to McDonald's) and the fast food joint was jam-packed from the time we arrived, around 2 pm, until the time we left, closer to 3 pm.
We then headed over to the hardware store, but it was another battle to find a parking space there. In the end, Frederic dropped me off in front of the store and he and Benjamin went and parked the car in Ikea's multi-level parking garage that for some reason not many people seem to use. (And yet no one had any qualms about taking up ALL the handicapped spaces in ALL the parking lots, without having handicapped stickers!)
I guess people don't go shopping for clearance sales at the hardware store, so at least we didn't have to fight the crowds once we were inside. We got some paint for the bathroom and a ceiling fan/light fixture and curtain rod for the guest room. Yep, the never-ending renovations. Frederic does have vacation later on in January so I hope he can finish up the guest room then, and hopefully the bathroom also.
In the meantime, we'll be avoiding stores around Paris until after the January sales are over. We are going shopping again today, but in Compiègne, a town an hour or more from Paris, and we don't think it will be quite so bad there.
2 comments:
I didn't know this about French clearance sales. I also didn't know there were outlet malls!
Well... there are outlet malls, but they're not full of good deals like in the U.S. They're usually very pricey and full of factory seconds but where they aren't discounted like you might expect. I've only been a time or two because it just doesn't seem worth it.
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