Comment: Are Sales practices destroying trust in retail?

OFT blasts carpet and furniture stores for misleading price cuts’, read the website of one national newspaper last Friday, before then reporting ‘Retail chiefs blast OFT over carpet and furniture price-fixing probe’.

The two news stories highlight the polarised views of this investigation.

The OFT, seemingly on a mission of late to prove it has bite, believes consumers are being misled by six well-known retailers that, it claims, are artificially inflating prices in order to fabricate Sales.

The British Retail Consortium has slammed the announcement for its timing just before the bank holiday Sales weekend, as well as the apparent lack of process and consultation in the investigation.

The absence of clarity and detail certainly adds to the sense political and regulatory bodies are looking to “get tough” on the retail sector in order to score political capital.

Whether the OFT is sabre-rattling or not, the reaction of the public to the investigation should be of greater concern.

On social media consumers seemed to respond with an unhealthy mixture of resignation and cynicism. They were resigned to the belief these Sales were anything but genuine and cynical about the likelihood the retail sector would change its ways.

Trust in retail is a precious commodity, never more so than now following a year of controversies. And, if the reality of an industry that fights so hard to deliver value is being tarnished by Sale signs, perhaps it’s time to rethink how and how often they are used.