Bargain?

So all the high street shops are offering massive discounts in the attempt to get credit crunch hit families in before Christmas.
Now I'm cynical of all "half price" and "60% off" type discounts as over and over again I see products still costing the same as they used to before the discounts, there are laws against this but the department that enforces it must be totally overrun as every store is doing it.
It was nice to be proved right again today as the wife went to buy my Daughter-in-law a Christmas present, she had checked in an old Argos catalogue we had (the early 2008 edition) and the price was £14.99, so she went in and was shocked to see the price had doubled to £29.99 in the new catalogue but on checking the with the cashier she found out that there was a 50% Christmas discount on the item bringing the price down to the original £14.99 .... that was lucky!!

Who said Rip Off, no the increase during the year was obviously down to the price of Oil wasn't it? I know it's only a jewellery item but there must be a legitimate reason for the 100% increase during the year.
Sigh