Does Foschini have genuine sales, or is the discount off an inflated price?

It varies by item, and the gap can be wide. Across the 304 Foschini deals we have tracked long enough to judge, the typical badge is 50% off, but measured against the price the item actually holds, the median real saving is R0 (0%). The rest of that percentage is calculated off a was-price we have not seen the item reach. We show both numbers on every deal so the badge does not do the deciding.

What is the biggest genuine Foschini price drop SaleDrop has recorded?

Right now the deepest genuine Foschini saving we are showing is 54% below the usual price: Wrap Style Halter Top, now R129 against the R279 it usually sells at. That is measured off the price the item genuinely held, not the advertised was-price.

How many Foschini deals is SaleDrop tracking right now?

We are tracking 305 Foschini deals at 50% or more off, priced from R49 to R899, up to 75% off. Of those, 304 have enough recorded history for us to judge the saving, and 274 are at the lowest price we have on record.

How do I know if a Foschini deal is actually a good price?

Ignore the percentage badge and look at two figures we record: the lowest price we have ever seen the item at, and the price it usually holds. If the current price is at or near that recorded low and clearly below the usual price, the saving is real. Our method is on the how-we-verify page.

Foschini sale, checked

Foschini sells women's and men's fashion, beauty, accessories and homeware. Here is how its sales behave while we watch the prices, and every live deal it is running at 50% or more off.

305 deals live304 with judgeable history274 at a recorded lowbadge says 50%, typical real saving 0%

How Foschini sales really work

Foschini is one of the bigger TFG fashion chains, and it runs markdowns more or less constantly across clothing, shoes, beauty and homeware. That means a "sale" tag on its own tells you very little. The same dress can carry a red sale badge for weeks while the actual selling price drifts up and down underneath it.

What we watch for is the price the item genuinely held before the drop, not the was-price printed on the badge. Foschini fashion tends to follow a seasonal rhythm: full price at launch, a first markdown a few weeks in, then a deeper cut when the range is being cleared. The deals worth acting on are the ones sitting at or near the lowest we have recorded, which usually means the line is on its way out.

Treat the was-price as a starting point, not the truth. Check it against the lowest and highest figures we have recorded for the item.
End-of-season clearances on clothing and shoes are where the genuine drops cluster, more so than beauty, which discounts shallowly.
A price that has only just appeared has no history behind it yet, so wait a little or lean on a similar item we have tracked for longer.