Many years ago, enforcement officials announced that the holding of sales at retail stores would be controlled. Retailers could not indiscriminately label goods as on sale and discounts had to genuine. Goods had to be sold at normal retail prices for a period of time before they could be marked down.

That initiative has long been forgotten and the ongoing sale at Jusco at Wangsa Maju, and I suspect at other Jusco outlets, is the most blatantly false I have seen to date.

Brands like Cheetah, Chargers, Forest, Alain Delon and others have brazenly put ridiculous prices on their goods before tagging them at ‘massive' discounts. I know this because my office is very close to this Jusco outlet and I go there regularly.

Shorts that were selling for RM30 plus recently are now listed at RM69 and then discounted 50% back down to their original price. A cotton slacks that I had bought at a RM69 regular price is now listed at RM139 before being put on sale at a very attractive 70% discount.

The list goes on and on. There were only a few brands that had genuinely marked down their products. I, of course, did not buy anything that was falsely marked up but the store was full of shoppers happily shopping away without realising that they were being taken for ‘discount' rides.

Enforcement officers and consumer right associations do not have to take my word for it. The Jusco sale is still on and they can go and check for themselves.

Not every department store in the country is on sale at the same time and enforcement officers simply need to compare prices for the same brands at different stores to know if the discounts are genuine or hyped-up.

Times are already difficult enough for consumers and manufacturers and retailers should be doing their part to provide genuine value to consumers instead of ripping them off.

They do not seem to fear being hauled up by the authorities. Are the relevant enforcement officers sleeping on their jobs?

The offending brands have become slaves of their own marketing strategy. With sales being held almost every other week, consumers have learnt to expect discounts and that, too ,when they are discounted heavily.

It appears that 20% markdowns are no longer attractive and people only buy when these items are listed at 50% or more. If this trend continues, we will soon see 90% discounts becoming a reality.

Something has to be done before we reach that silly stage. Malaysian consumers are in need of some real enforcement from the government. Consumer associations too can play an effective role by setting up websites that list the price of items weekly.

This list must be comprehensive and not limited to essential goods only. When a sale comes, it would be easy to see if it is genuine or not.

If the government cannot ensure that consumers are not led around like fools by these ‘terrorist' brands, which I am sad to say are all Malaysian brands, it may be time to look into banning sales completely.