Recession! What recession?

During some Christmas shopping with the future Mrs. Hosten (my last name) we stopped by several malls in the Orlando area. With only 12 days remaining until the 25th of December, we wanted to catch some sales our loved ones would like. Great. What wasn't so great was the stores who failed to acknowledge the economic situation in the country right now. Now, my fiance and I are seasoned shoppers. We hunt out bargains quite well. No shame in that. She found some amazing pieces, heavily discounted at the outlets of Neiman Marcus and Saks 5th Ave. I nailed a $1,250 Burberry DB suit far less than half the retail price. Although we found some amazing deals, I couldn't believe there are stores that still refuse to have sales. In a story published in the NY Times companies like Abercrombie and Fitch (think big bucks for heavily worn and soiled clothing) don't want to have have sales because they fear it will cheapen the brand. Really! Cheapen the brand...during a recession. Yeah. Now this doesn't too much affect me because I've never stepped foot in A&F and don't plan on it. However, the arrogance is what's appalling. It's the same with luxury brands at the outlets like Dior and Armani, who have a few mildly reduced items on racks in the back. If they're afraid of losing some appeal, take a look at Luxury god (lowercase g) Tom Ford, who took out a big ad in the NYT advertising a sale. It's almost trendy right now to cut prices. What's not trendy is believing that keeping your prices high will maintain your credibility as a luxury brand. Luxury is all about the construction, the fabrics the cachet of having something that looks and feels nicer than other pieces in the wardrobe and may cost a bit more. I strongly believe educated consumers are still willing to shell out cash for Dior (which is still a lot of paper) but it goes both ways.