After Christmas Sales in Italy

I am not quite sure if it is because of the recession or if it is just in my small town of Chiusi and the vicinity but the after Christmas sales so far are quite disappointing. In Tuscany the sales were supposed to start on January 7th so I armed myself with some cash and started hitting the stores where I had seen certain items I was interested in. I was shocked when I saw no sales. I asked the store personnel when the sales would start and they said "oh we are not having sales this year." So I thought it must be an isolated thing. I went to two other larger stores and the same response. I went to another store and they told me "Oh I don't know when they will start."I finally hit the last store, a franchise store for children's things, and they said "oh those items (the ones I wanted) are not on sale."

What a disappointment. The only stores that are having sales are those with items that had outrageous original prices. The sale price is a joke.

Haven't these people heard of the recession going on? Are they hurting so bad they cannot put anything on sale? Probably. It is no wonder people are going more and more to larger shopping malls and outlets to do their shopping or not shopping at all. No wonder the rate of consumer spending has fallen so low.

Shopping in Italy is not what it used to be. In the past you could get some really nice things out here at decent prices. You could get quality Made in Italy clothing, shoes, bags, etc and they would last years. Now finding Made in Italy anything is a real challenge in Italy.