How to read a sale.

Right now our scanner sees 140,762 items marked down across 75 of the 197 brands we watch — out of 383,032 products in total. That is 37% of everything on sale on any given day. Which is the first thing worth understanding.

If most of a shop is discounted, the discount is the price. A brand with three quarters of its catalogue marked down is not running a sale; it has set its list prices high and its real prices lower, permanently. Nothing about that is illegal or even unusual — but the percentage tells you nothing about whether you are getting a deal.

Live right now — 15 brands we track have at least 45% of a 200-plus catalogue on sale:

• Cotopaxi11,507 of 14,724 items — 78%
• Reebok8,510 of 14,446 items — 59%
• Reebok8,510 of 14,359 items — 59%
• Reebok8,497 of 14,531 items — 58%
• Chrome Industries349 of 603 items — 58%

We only count brands whose whole catalogue we can read. A shop's own “sale” page is 100% on sale by definition — quoting that as proof of anything would be the same trick in reverse.

When a brand's markdowns nearly all land on the same two or three values — half off, forty off, thirty off — you're looking at a pricing rule, not a clearance. Across every discounted price we track, a third of all markdowns land on just three numbers: 30, 40 and 50 percent. The starkest case we've measured: a thousand markdowns from a single brand, 98% of them on exactly three values.

A rule isn't an accusation. Some good brands sell most of their catalogue at a standing discount all year — that's a price structure, and the shoes are still the shoes. What the rule tells you is narrower: the percentage carries no information. If it reads 20% off every day of the year, then 20% off is simply the price.

The real signal is the deviation. A brand that sits at 20% all year and quietly moves to 35% for a weekend is having an actual sale — and the crossed-out number can't show you that. Only the brand's own price history can. That's the number we keep.

One folk tell to drop while you're here: whether the crossed-out price is round means nothing. Full prices are round too — we checked.

This one matters because it is the tell most often mistaken for dishonesty. An outlet sells past-season colours, discontinued styles and excess stock at a standing lower price. Several of the best brands we track say exactly that, in their own words, on their own outlet pages — and they are being straight with you.

Outlet stock is often genuinely good value. Just know what you are buying: last year's colour, a discontinued make, or a size run with the middle missing. “40% off” on an outlet page is a description of the inventory, not a countdown.

The oldest one: the price rises quietly in June, the “sale” lands in August, and you pay more than you would have in spring. The only defence is knowing the price before the sale existed — which is the entire reason we record every reading and never delete one.

Being straight about our own limits: we started recording in August 2026. Catching a pre-markup takes months of history, so we cannot yet name a brand doing it — and we have not found one. When our records are deep enough to show it, we will publish it with the receipts. Until then, the practical defence is yours: screenshot the price when you first notice something you want.

The crossed-out number on a product page is typed in by the retailer. Nobody verifies it. It does not have to be a price the item ever sold for, and on plenty of products it never was. It is a reference point supplied by the person who wants you to buy — which makes it the least reliable number on the page, and the one your eye is drawn to first.

Ignore it. The only comparison worth making is against what the thing has actually cost over time.