Post-Christmas sales, cheap Chinese-style

Many years ago, when I was but a slip of a girl, the most exciting day of the year was not Christmas day, but stocktake sale day. I would stay over at my cousin’s place, and visions of bargains would dance through our heads as we gossiped into the wee small hours. Then, full of beans despite having had little rest (aah, youth!), we would take the train into town and shop all day, although my aged brain is having trouble recalling what we actually bought. 


By the way, does anyone remember whether the stocktake sales were on Boxing Day way back when? Or did they start later so that the poor shop assistants could enjoy Christmas too? Seeing as they were called “stocktake sales” rather than “Boxing Day sales”, I’m guessing maybe they started later… anyway, that’s beside the point. I now avoid these sales like the plague, as I can find nearly everything I need at op shops or make it myself. My one exception is supermarket sales. The prospect of all those Christmas goodies retailing at considerably lower prices simply because the big day is too tempting for the cheap Chinese in me to bear. Today I went to four supermarkets (I know, I have no life) and bought stollen and Christmas fruitcake, among other things that people generally don’t enjoy eating after December 25th. Personally, I take great pleasure in consuming this sort of thing at Easter, partly for the novelty factor, but also because the weather is cooler and European cakey things taste like they should. Although as the temperature was something like 14 degrees this morning in Melbourne, a slab of fruitcake would not have gone astray today either. 
On the subject of retail (in fact, the reason I started writing this post), I think some supermarkets would make a killing if they employed shop assistants like this:
 
My friend sent me these pictures ages ago and I found them as I was going through my email trying to find attachments which I can download and use again (think CVs, photos, invoices – basically everything that has disappeared thanks to my own stupidity at not backing up my hard drive for three years)… I just couldn’t resist somehow linking gratuitous cat pictures with my wafflings about supermarket shopping. But I’m sure lots of you still do hit the proper sales… what did you buy? 
Category : festive food, gratuitous cat usage, sales