Could it be the end of the sales? This is what a study conducted by the Syndicate of Independents and very small businesses suggests a few days before the summer 2025 sales.
Ah, the sales … which would not be tempted to shop and fill your basket to the brim when all the posters of the stores display -50 %? As consumers and fashionistas, sales have always been the best time of the year. But for some time, they have been as popular as before, because they are no longer as exclusive. Indeed, if the sales were once the only time when you could buy clothes at broken prices, today, with all private sales and resale platforms – except those used -, it is ultimately the sales all year round. And the traders are dissatisfied.
The sales appeared in the 19th century. At the time, the sellers offered the unsold season of last season to sell stocks. But today, it is a mass movement that everyone is forced to follow, despite a difficulty in joining both ends. “I hope to hold on, but it’s complicated when we have to sell off our products two months after their arrival”explains a merchant.
According to a survey carried out by the Syndicate of Freelancers and VSEs from June 16 to 18, 2025, with 803 people, 68% declare that they encounter cash problems, 61% of the dealers believe that the balances have no real commercial interest and 60% only practice them by competitive obligation.
The reasons: too important stands that are only profitable for large clothing channels such as Zara, H&M, etc., the development of e-commerce with sites such as Shein and Temu that offer mini prices, private sales, year-round. The sellers have also observed a drop in consumption linked to inflation, and especially a loss of general interest! Indeed, 66 % of traders find an increasing disinterest in sales. According to them, the purchase would depend today on the discount level and no longer on the product itself.
Could it be the end of the sales? This is what some retailers would like who tried to put an end to the sales, but did not succeed. “I tried to boycott a year. I held 3 days. I was planted a knife in the foot because the customers were going to see elsewhere. How to fight alone? It was the earth jar against the iron jar!“Explains one of them. Salespeople therefore demand a change in the economic model. In the long term, if the complaints of the sellers persist, the sales may well have to be re -examined.
