France legally has only two periods of sales: January and June or July, although les soldes may start earlier in Eastern France, because of its proximity with other European countries who might have sales as well. There used to be twelve weeks of sales, cut in two periods: one in the winter and one in the summer. The law changed recently, reducing the permissible sales period to two five-week periods, plus two weeks of either promotional sales – where stores may not sell at a loss – or ‘floating’ sales ‘les soldes flottants‘ – where stores may sell at a loss. Stores may have small promotional sales in between, but your best bargains happen during ‘les soldes’. You can imagine the chaos in the department stores. The expression for checking out the sales and the bargains is ‘faire les soldes‘.
January is known as the month of les soldes d’hiver or les soldes du blanc (the winter sales or white sales, so-called because it used to be for white linens sales – sheets and tablecloths. Nowadays, the white sales aren’t just for linens. They have extended to all domains. Any store and small business can have sales. The law is really strict about les soldes. The idea behind the law is to protect small businesses. There is a huge fine for merchants who don’t comply.
[...] happen like they do in the US. This is not the land of constant markdowns and bargain shopping. Twice a year for about a month (in August and January), they sell off the previous season’s [...]