Les Soldes!

There is mayhem in the streets. Not entirely because of the impressive victories of Les Bleus. The French are crazed and wild-eyed with shopping fever, because now is the time of the annual Sales, which-- by law-- only occur twice a year. Stores across France have plastered their windows with signs, and slashed the prices on their wares, sometimes up to 75 percent off. Even in Limoges, I had to brave pushy people and elbows when browsing the racks.

Great deals are to be had for us consumers, but why exactly is this law in place? Why are stores only allowed to have sales from mid-January to mid-February, and from mid-June to mid-July? (Monitored by the police?) As I explained to Pierre, these laws penalize the stores, because they often have to hold on to massive inventory until the time of Les Soldes, when they can finally get rid of stuff by cutting prices. I even witnessed a shopkeeper darting in the back of her store, emerging with a box of clothes, covered in dust. Practically, Les Soldes don't make sense. And so it is with many cultural customs in France, which actually find their root in ancient historical traditions.

To quote Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong:

(Les Soldes) dates back to practices of the merchants' guilds in the Middle Ages. At that time, guilds had two functions: they settled disputes among tradesmen of one town and protected the tradesmen against competition from other towns. Guilds set the standards for quality and pricing-- they made rules along the lines of "bread can't contain more than 10 percent sand" (thankfully standards have evolved). Guilds guaranteed social protection to their members... But if individuals failed to abide by the rules set by the guild, a medieval cop known as the Provost broke their legs. Provosts evolved into police officers (though many French would dispute the claim that they evolved at all), but the system of policing prices and sales continues in the form of Les Soldes. And the practice of regulating sales pre-dates the discovery of America by at least three hundred years.