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PAGE A4 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, suggested, then my condolences to retailers. My suggestion would be that they take a long, hard look at some serious collusion and collective price fixing, and don‘t give up on full pricing in December without a fight. Though I warn you, if I see that Calendar of Grotesque Statues under $5 come Boxing Day, I‘m gonna spit. Of course, we always did our usual teethâ€"gnashing when Boxing Day prices were unveiled. But that was all part of the game, and you lived with it. Now, the rules of the game appear to have changed, and what may have been seen as a clever marketing ploy several years ago has backfired in a lot of people‘s faces. If the rules have changed for good, as the article last week I guess because that‘s how I remember Christmas shopping. Getting "just the right style", or "the sizzling bestseller", or "the only Cabbage Patch Kid" in existence. You were able to get the realEasy Bake Oven, not the fake one? Wow. We‘ve never been rich, but even our very modest budget, full pricing was never a monster to be slayed. Or is it simply because there‘s a sucker born every minute, and yes, that‘s me, standing squarely on the 60. Why do I lunge to bookstores to pay $24.95 for the newest bestâ€"seller that I know is going to be on the $2.95 recycled pile next June? Why do I brush past the sale, sale, sale racks in clothing stores and buy the only item that isn‘t? Why do I go full pop for cassette tapes that‘ll overflow in the bargain bin two weeks from now? Or is it because I have this masochistic desire to perpetuate the popularity of Boxing Day sales and their accompanying madhouse atmosphere? Nothing I like better than waiting an hour and a half to get into a mall parking lot so I can spend another hour and a half looking for a spot to park, in order to fight off 50 people to get to the front of a counter so I can find out the item I wanted was sold out about the time I entered the lineup to the parking lot. What‘s my problem? Is it because I prefer to purchase unique Christmas gifts that catch my fancy, and therefore buy on impulse? Is that why, when I bought my mothet gift certificates to a dry cleaning outlet, I had to pay full price? Likewise my Dad‘s Calendar of Grotesque Statues from the Stop‘N‘Drop? Of course, the mall parking lots are still jammed and downtown streets still crowded â€" but with surveyors, not shoppers, at least not until they feel they have the gavel in their hand to hammer down the final price they pay for presents. Depressing news? Well, retailers take heart. You will always have me. Rick, the full price fanatic. WADDAYA MEAN, 50â€"70% OFF? I‘m nearly finished my Christmas shopping, and I haven‘t yet bought an item anywhere close to that discount! indication that another ice age is approaching? I couldn‘t help but notice the news report out of Toronto last week indicating that many retailers are alreéady offering 50â€"70 per cent off merchandise a full two weeks before Christmas. Sales, the report said, are cold as ice. The current recession notwithstanding, the ominous message ofthemiclevuthatbeaunrmilmblinhdaeoupleof years ago and began offering preâ€"Christmas discounts, consumâ€" ers are wandering malls and downtown these days, but not buying â€" at least until they figure they‘ve won the catâ€"andâ€" mouse price game. / Even more distréssing to retailers was the conclusion in the article that full retail pricing has gone the way of the dinosaur, never again to be seen in our lifetime. It‘s a fact not only heard at the office water cooler, but reinforced by marketing gurus, who have long argued that for a little extra market share in recent past, retailers made the sorry bed they now lie in. Waterioo Chronicle Second Class Mail Registration Number 5540 Published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group Incorporated £ / 215 Fairway Rd. S., Kitchener, Ont. ~ [ December 12, 1990 Snd‘ Christmas consumer# shows support for full pricing format Is the THAT‘S LIFE Pek bâ€"p_ ht\ J diwk. s id the paint and paper people SUNGLITZ is the artistic approach process, in the nai NATURAL, BELIEVABLE Mb & ~=> f’ O Â¥> sium:m AF. C Wa® \~/ w ife Witthees Since 1974 41 Mogels on Dsisfiplax Some with CASHBACKS to $400 LARGEST AREA SHOWROOM 885â€"1711 41 Models on Displa $500 INSTANT CASHBACK! ‘ 78" 5 Person Family Spas ‘ Were $3490 | 3 ONLY AT ‘2990." Hot Tub Madness! [StClair the paint and paper people WATERLOO Conestoga Mall _ Waterloo T INâ€"STOCK 1" VINYL VENETIANS _ FROM #P99r â€"â€" mz 886â€"2789 886â€"3 Mon. â€" Fri. 9:30â€"9:30 oo sdoeve *St Clair‘s 64" lengths Wrhile and Savings also availrl'gn in sizes up to 60° wide in 45" and House «sCedar 210 Regina St. N., Waterloo :t ’999 FREE* t m 3080 106 Weber St. N., Waterloo Lincoin Plaza:s Ph.:885â€"5020 ON WALLPAPER BOOK ORDERS Choose from over 100 selected books. "St Clair‘s LATEX SATIN (e1327) Washable wall paint. ideal tor lving rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms 11.89 4.49 7.49