Formula to sail through sales

SCIENCE boffins have come up with a formula to help bargain-hunters beat the January sales stress.

It comes after new research revealed that one in 10 people is worried about how to fund their New Year sales purchases.

The formula pulls together factors which affect shoppers, including competitiveness (C), funding purchases (F), stress level (S) and anxiety (A).

Shoppers rate these factors out of five, as well as sale factors which comprise bargains (B), time available (T), store interiors (I) and other people there (P), to discover their chances of Beating Sales Stress (BSS).

The formula which has been devised reads: BSS = ((3T+2B1)/(2P+I1)) + ((C+F+2)/(S x A)).

Scores range from one to 24, with the lower score meaning the greater the risk of shoppers getting stressed during the festive season.

Psychologist David Lewis worked with mathematician Phillip Obayda to calculate the formula for Clydesdale Bank.

He said: "This formula allows you to see that by improving just one of the factors involved with your January sales shopping, you can significantly increase your chances of beating sales stress.

"And one of the factors that can reduce your long-term stress the most is how confident you feel about your ability to afford your purchases."

Clydesdale Bank retail banking general manager Steve Reid said: "The equation backs up our research findings that one of the best ways of reducing your sales shopping stress is to reduce the worry about how to finance your purchases."