I decided to start practising what I preach last weekend and headed out to a few of the fantastic clearance sales (as listed on our Sale Spy page) to pick up a few bargains. Not only did I pick up my new favourite pair of jeans for just $50, but I also picked up on just how many women out there are in need of a good dose of sale-shopping manners.

Everyone knows that if you decide to enter into the madness of a clearance sale, you are going to have to take the good with the bad. A 70 per cent discount always goes hand-in-hand with long register lines and communal change rooms. And hell, a small part of me actually enjoys it. 

What I didn’t enjoy was standing for nearly 45 minutes in a queue of what was originally about five people deep (and ended up being about 40) while two women hogged the only change rooms to try and re-try the entire store’s collection of clothing (with about five minutes of mirror-time umming and ahhing over each combination).

Now seriously, this is just plain rude. And really, that much deliberation is just not needed over a $20 T-shirt or even a $50 pair of jeans. Either you like it, or you don’t -  and then you move on (actually, a general rule of thumb for shopping is if you don’t love it, even if it is 95 per cent off, don’t buy it!)

The same goes for women in a communal change room who set up camp in front of the only mirror, or dare to pinch an item from another woman’s pile. It’s amazing how many normally sane women can be reduced to a kindergarten level of politeness when faced with the prospect of saving a dollar or twenty.

So I am here to spread the word.  And who knows, maybe eventually women everywhere will be able to conduct themselves in a civilised manner when confronted with a pile of odd-sized designer cast offs… although not too civilised I hope, as actually that would take some of the fun out of it!

Do you have any nightmare sale shopping stories? Share them here.