Sales, Specials, Deals & Bargains
Introduction
In some countries it seems every product in every shop has a brightly coloured "SALE" sticker attached to it every day - but the prices are always the same and nothing special at all. Finnish sales aren't like that! I'm not saying everything on special in Finland is offered at a fantastic price, but if you take your time, do some research, and maybe be patient and wait a while, you can save big money on sale items in Finland.
Examples:
- My washing machine was on sale for €200; regular retail price €399. Saved €199
- I was looking at an amplifier selling for €499. The shop next door, owned by the same retail chain, had the same amp on sale for €279. Saved €220
It's not just products which get offered at substantially reduced prices. For example the 'Veturi' loyalty program of the Finnish Rail Service, VR, regularly offers long distance train tickets at 30%-70% off. Read more
Finding the Sale Prices
The Finnish words to look for are
- Ale = Sale
- Tarjous, Tarjoukset = Offer, Offers
- Erikois hinta = Special price
- Diili, Diilit = Deal, Deals (less common)
Through your Door
If you don't have Ei Mainoksia (No Advertising) on your front door, you don't have to do anything to find sale prices; you will already be aware of the daily flood of advertising coming through the letter box from most retailers. You'll hear about most sales that way.
Visit the Sites
If you DO have Ei Mainoksia on your door, visit the retailers' websites as shown on the Shopping Directory page, and find the Specials section by looking for the words listed above - they should be pretty obvious, and highlighted on the front page.
Paper-free advertising
You can also register with the various retailers' websites and opt to have notifications of specials emailed to you; this is a good choice if you do want advertising, but you've chosen not to receive it in paper form i.e. you have Ei Mainoksia on your door.
Specialists
There are many companies, often specialists of some sort, who don't advertise 'through your door'. For example, if you sign up with travel agencies you can receive notifications of 'last-minute' deals, when the agencies are trying to fill spaces on iminent package tours. These deals can be awesome value - sometimes cheaper than staying home!
In Conclusion...
For a non-Finnish speaker it can be hard "getting in on" these kinds of deals, because we're not aware of which companies specialise in what, and when we do manage to find out, the websites are usually only in Finnish so we can't understand them, let alone complete a registration form.
Don't give up - the bargains are worth chasing!
Things are getting easier; there are more multilingual websites and translation options are constantly improving. With the information on these Shopping pages, you should be able to find Finnish companies providing the goods or services you're looking for, and you should be able to recognise any special deals they may be offering at their websites. If you'd like the added advantage of 'limited offers for registered customers only' but you can't work out how to join, just telephone the company - chances are high that someone there will be able to help you in your language!
Site Translation
If you cannot navigate a Finnish-only site, the vast majority work well translated in Chrome browser (How?)
Translate in Chrome
Desktop: Right-click anywhere on a page and click Translate to [Language].
iPhone / iPad: At bottom of screen, tap Translate.
Android: At bottom of screen select Language, tap Translate.
or Google Translate
Related Links
Links to other sites are direct to the relevant page, where possible
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