Too many inclusions in exclusivity

For the first time, Finnish shops are having big sales before Christmas — usually, the sales start day after Boxing Day, and some department stores, such as Stockmann, start their sales period after New Year. This year, the economic situation has changed this and there has been day or two minisales in every single store.

Stockmann joined the craze with their “exclusive shopping weekend”. People that are loyal customers to Stockmann and have spent enough dough on their merchandise are promoted into exclusive level in the loyal customer program. You get a platinum looking card, a few magazines a year, and two annual -10% sales days.

Yesterday and today Stockmann awarded the exclusive group with 20% discount on almost everything and 10% for food items. The department store was shock full of people already at noon when the doors opened. I and Aapo were there to hunt a few presents (found them all, thanks for asking) and spent almost an hour, mostly in queue to the register.

In Akateeminen Bookstore, I was a bit dumbfounded with my exclusivity. There were only 92 people in front of me, all of them probably exclusive, too. The store had been open less than thirty minutes, so I cannot even fathom how many exclusive deals there were made at the peak hours in the afternoon.

The exclusivity sort of vanishes when you find yourself in a herd that is just as exclusive as you are.