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Perfumes really are cheapest at duty-free By Rina Rozenberg When our forefathers gave names to Pesach, they never imagined that in addition to the Festival of Matzah, the Festival of Freedom and the Festival of Spring, this holiday would also be called the Festival of Perfumes. Perhaps the coming of spring makes people want to buy new fragrances, because perfume sales rise significantly in the days preceding Pesach. Sources at the SuperPharm drugstore chain estimate the Israeli perfume market at NIS 670 million annually, and that over 750,000 bottles of perfume are purchased in the week preceding Pesach, with each perfume customer buying an average of two bottles. Danny Luzon, vice president of commerce at SuperPharm, says women tend to buy perfume more often than men, out of a desire to be trendy, and therefore buy 50ml bottles. Israeli men, on the other hand, are more faithful to brands and buy the fragrance they are used to, usually in 100ml bottles. Advertisement Perfume marketers shift into high gear, with special offers starting about two weeks before Pesach, and customers spray samples to try new fragrances. This year again, however, there are no discounts on the priciest luxury brands - you won't find any special offer signs beside Gucci and Chanel perfumes. Those brands will always be expensive. To find out which stores are offering the best deals on perfumes to mark the holiday, TheMarker visited a branch of each of the leading chain stores and checked the types of discounts. We compared the prices of eight randomly chosen perfumes for men and eight for women, at SuperPharm, New-Pharm, Hamashbir Lazarchan, April, duty-free stores and the Call Perfume Web site. This drugstore chain is offering up to 70% discount on 350 perfumes sold in five price categories: NIS 100, NIS 150, NIS 200, NIS 250 and NIS 300. Prices are clearly marked on all the products and we saw a few shoppers using NIS 50 gift vouchers distributed by the chain last month, for use on purchases over NIS 150. Sometimes you can find double discounts. There are two types of offers on perfumes at this chain. Regularly priced perfumes are "buy one get the second for NIS 1" (the lower priced of the two). If you don't want two bottles, perfumes purchased singly are 40% off. Several brands of perfumes are specially priced in three categories - NIS 199, NIS 249 and NIS 299, but of course there are no double offers here. If you buy two reduced price perfumes, you won't be able to buy the second one for NIS 1. To avoid unpleasant surprises at the checkout, pay attention to shelf signs regarding which offer applies to the fragrances of your choice. Put on your math whiz cap before entering this store. Leading perfumes are up to 50% off for the general public, and "365 Club" members receive a further 20% discount on the discounted prices. Shoppers not equipped with a cell phone that doubles as a calculator will have to ask the sales staff for help in calculating the final price. Not all the perfumes are on sale at 50% off, so look for the discount signs for each brand. Some popular perfumes are discounted up to 70%, but shoppers at the store we visited in Dizengoff Center will have difficulty figuring out exactly how much they will have to pay. The regular price stickers are on each product, but the discount on each brand is not displayed on the shelves, so you will have to ask the cashier. All prices at the duty-free stores are in dollars, so it's worth taking a few moments to convert the price to shekels, to avoid surprises at the checkout. The shekel prices are based on the exchange rate published daily by the Bank of Israel. The duty-free stores' commitment to the lowest prices includes a promise that if you find a perfume at a lower price in Israel, the store will reduce its own price and compensate the customer. A special price-tracking system checks the specials at all the chains. In addition to the low prices, when you buy three perfumes at duty-free stores, you receive the fourth (lowest-priced) bottle free, so the overall price is even less. The only problem is that in order to shop at a duty-free store, you first have to buy an airline ticket or find someone traveling abroad who will shop for you. This Web site offers a wide variety of perfumes at various discounts, sometimes even on perfumes that are no longer available in Israel. Call Perfume has been marketing perfumes online in Israel for about 10 years, importing directly from distributors around the world. The (Hebrew-Russian) site is user-friendly and you can find your favorite perfume by searching the men's or women's categories or the lists of brands. Another way to find a perfume is to answer three questions, based on which the site produces a list of suitable fragrances. The questions concern the recipient of the perfume (man/woman), the group of fragrances to which the perfume belongs (woody, flowery, refreshing etc.) and the desired style (feminine, romantic, sporty, dynamic, elegant, stylish etc.). The search engine then reduces the list and makes selecting a fragrance easier, if you are still undecided. The perfumes are sent free of charge by registered mail, or by courier, within 72 hours, for a NIS 25 express delivery fee, regardless of the total cost or the number of items purchased. A comparison of specific perfume prices found discrepancies of tens of shekels between one chain and another, and especially between the most expensive chain, duty-free and the Web site. Call Perfume and the duty-free stores offer the lowest prices, so if you are not planning a trip abroad but still want a new bottle of perfume, online shopping is the most worthwhile. The Health Ministry has no testing and approval procedure for perfumes. This means that none of the perfumes sold to the public have been tested by the ministry, even those sold by drugstores and direct importers. The difference between the two is that retail chains buy perfumes from the manufacturers' official importers, while the direct importers buy from the manufacturers' distributors. These distributors have agreements with the manufacturers, forbidding the sale of merchandise to any interested party, and any such sale is a breach of their contract. The distributors get around this violation of their agreements by removing identifying labels from the crates. We will not deny that the Web sites or stores that sell perfumes by direct import can deceive consumers and sell counterfeit perfumes, but anyone familiar with the scent of the perfume and the shape of the bottle will recognize the difference immediately. TheMarker ordered perfumes from Call Perfume twice in the past few months, and in both instances received original perfumes in the original packaging. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Proposed sanctions Dutch Labor Party proposes sanctions against Israel if it thwarts peace process. False alarm Delta flight gets IAF fighter jet escort after pilot activates anti-hijack warning system.

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