Faith in the UK high street hits all time low

Over three quarters of UK shoppers are sick and tired of the deceptive sales tactics being used by Britain’s biggest retailers - and it’s prompting them to stop spending.

Estate agents and furniture retailers are seen as the main offenders, with 95% of shoppers questioned in a new survey highlighting their dodgy pricing policies as misleading.

Mistrust of the ‘better than half price’ sales and ‘last chance’ offers that litter the high street goes so deep that two thirds of customers delay making purchases because they fear they’re being conned, and a third eventually give up on buying what they were after altogether.

The findings of the survey come after Channel 4’s ‘Secret Shopper’ programme recently exposed the lack of honest pricing in the furniture retail industry, and just days after The Grocer revealed Tesco has been duping shoppers in the same way – namely by artificially increasing prices on products for a short period in order to make its price cuts look more dramatic.*

Sofa retailer csl, who commissioned the survey, is calling for an end to underhand sales tactics. The company is launching a consumer petition to present to the OFT to try and change the current system which allows for these practices to continue.

Jason Tyldesley, csl’s 37-year old managing director said: “With the UK still in the process of recovering from the recession, this growing lack of trust in high street retailers is bad news for everyone, and the furniture industry is the worst offender.

“We believe that action needs to be taken to ensure shoppers feel they can trust in retailers and so we’ve banned price establishment and reductions based on this practice at csl and have introduced a new ‘best price guaranteed’ policy that ensures our customers get the best deal all year round.

“We’re hoping this policy, which is already getting great feedback, will lead other high street stores to deal with their customers in a more open and honest way.”