Emmy Fitri The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Ahead of the holiday season, many shopping malls and department stores are offering hefty discounts and special prices in a bid to attract shoppers, but the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) warned the public to be more critical in responding to offers, to avoid being trapped by tricks of the trade.

The discounts, offered from mid-November to the end of December, range from 20 percent to 70 percent and are mostly for fashion products, food and beverages, shoes and religious paraphernalia like sarongs, mukena (women's prayer outfits), and sajadah (prayer mats).

In Matahari department store, discounts are given to items selected from many product lines.

"Most of the discounted items are old stock but none of them are rejected products. They are around four months to five months old, not very old ... ," said Nugraheni, a supervisor at Matahari's Citraland shopping mall in West Jakarta.

She denied the public's suspicion that prices were raised before they were discounted.

"People can check at other stores and compare the prices; believe me, we don't resort to such tricks. The prices have been calculated carefully. Our products may be old stock but they are still good quality -- they justify the prices charged," she said.

A customer, Rani, a resident of Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, said she was often told by friends that discounts were either given to inferior products, or the new price tags and the calculation of prices involved sleight of hand.

"My friends told me that the prices were all raised and then discounted. That's tricky, but we cannot detect it unless we take a note of prices every time we come here," she added.

Rani said that she had come to shop, not because of the discounts, but because she could no longer bear to hear her daughter weeping while asking for a new T-shirt and jeans.

"I know there are sales on everywhere but I'm not tempted by them in the slightest. But this time I couldn't help it, my daughter kept on imploring me," she said.

When asked to comment on the seasonal discounts, YLKI's executive Diah Indriantari said, "Customers, please be careful, many tricks are used by businesspeople to sell their merchandise."

"In many cases the discounts are applied to rejected products and the shops carefully repair the broken parts and give them special price tags," Diah told The Jakarta Post.

She was more worried if discounts were applied to food and beverage products or medicines. She called on people to double- check the expiry date of products.

"There have been many cases where people took home out-of-date products. That's dangerous."

She regretted it that in the country there were no regulations from the trade and industry ministry on this matter.

"In some foreign countries, controls over the sale of reject products, old stock or items that are given special prices are robust and rigorous. Businesspeople cannot play around with discounts," she said.

Consequently, Diah warned, the public should not rush to shopping malls upon hearing about big discounts on offer.

"Decide what you really need and shop for what is necessary, not merely because there are discounted products on offer," she remarked.