Winter Sales: Is There Ever a Good Time to Shop?

'Bankruptcy is set to be all the rage this season'

CHRISTMAS has come and gone and everyone's attention seems to be turning to what's ahead in 2009.

Unless you're one of those people whose New Year's Resolution was to not have any resolutions, most people's are very similar. By the end of January you'll have given up alcohol for at least 17 minutes and have a year's subscription to the local gym that you will only have gone to once: to spend a couple of minutes on a treadmill or pick up a weight and put it back down again.

That's if you haven't invested in the latest celebrity exercise DVD that you tried and couldn't complete; not bothering to press the stop button because the remote control has dropped off the end of the sofa and you're eaten so many Miniature Heroes you can't physically, or be bothered, to move.

And, as bankruptcy is set to be all the rage this season, this year's winter sales are perhaps more prominent.

There have already been queues outside retailers from the early hours since Boxing Day. Millions of people will be dashing into shops and ripping clothes off the rails (or from the floor in TK Maxx) for the bargains in the hope that they will find what they're looking for.

In the winter, when you need a warm coat, the shops sell summer-wear and swimsuits. And in the summer, when you are thinking of holidaying in the sun, all you can get is warm clothes and scarves.

Many people have been waiting for the winter sales to spend their vouchers and get the prices that they think the stores should be charging in the first place. Prices in the shops have been getting higher all year as if British inflation had somehow been confused with that of Zimbabwe's.

Pairs of jeans from only £4, jumpers and fleeces from only £3, and pairs of shoes from only £2.50. I'm sure the Bangladeshi children stitching in their own blood, sweat, and tears are much obliged.

Food shopping is pretty easy: a woman who breathes heavily with her mouth open, drags your bread and milk across the scanner numerous times before calling Maggie to run along and find how much it costs. Simple.

But general shopping itself, I hear, is much more difficult than it used to be.

It isn't fun to be wading through shops with people intent on bumping into you at every opportunity, walking in front of you then suddenly stopping because they're out of breath, confused, or have been distracted by something shiny.

It's no surprise internet shopping has proliferated.

As I'm writing this I could have a tab open with a shopping cart full of books waiting for me to press 'purchase', and I know that what I see on the screen in front of me will be on the doorstep tomorrow morning.

Secondly, if I couldn't just type the title of the book into an online search engine, I would have to wonder around a real book shop. This usually consists of rummaging through the autobiographies of 12-year-old singers and books about tea with the Vicar in a village, or asking for help from an unwary member of staff who think that Charles Dickens is a fictional character and Salman Rushdie is a sexually transmitted disease.

And you can get all your music from iTunes for your iPod from the comfort of your iHome.

But then again, doing the shopping online does have its downsides. You can usually only buy something after you've given your name, address, email, what password you would like to use, how much you earn, and whether you would like some Viagra from Mr. Seboni in South Africa for £4.99 a pop.