Shopping Tips

Black Friday Perks Of The Season

November 28, 2014 By Twila Van Leer

Walmart report that 22 million shoppers went through their stores on Thanksgiving day in 2014.

Black Friday is changing. Stores are spreading their holiday bargains over more days and shoppers are looking for deals earlier than they used to, or even later, as the gurus predict a long season of specials. Some even have rewritten the term Black Friday to Black November.

Bankrate.com, an organization that tracks spending habits among Americans, did a survey of 1,000 adults and found that only 28 percent had plans to rise early and hit the stores on Black Friday. The figure rises to 40 percent if you count the online shoppers.

Many retailers are simply swapping Thanksgiving Day for the day after, getting a jump on the Black Friday event. Major discounts are being offered before the turkey cools. Among those retailers planning to make the early dive into the shopping frenzy are Walmart, Target, Amazon and Toys R Us.

The early sales are a bonus for shoppers who like to avoid the dense crowds that have characterized Black Friday. They are making their plans to avoid the super-shopping day, rather than being in the midst of it. The over-stuffed stores of the past have helped push the move to spread the bargain days over a longer period, the experts say.

Of course, there are those who thrive on the push-and-pull of big crowds and count it as a part of the holiday fun. They’ll be there for Black Friday early and stay late, the survey said.

Cyber Monday, the electronics equivalent of Black Friday, will attract even fewer shoppers, the Bankrate.com poll indicated, with only one four folks looking for techie bargains expecting to hit the specialty stores. And they said they will spend less than in the past, an average of $361, compared with $399 last time around.

The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that some 6 million more shoppers will join the online shopping than last year, when some 103 million shopped online. The record number is expected to keep the ordering hot throughout the Thanksgiving weekend. Three quarters of them are expected to use a mobile device to do their shopping, the association says.

The hot-ticket tech items for the year include TVs, laptops, tablet, iPads, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Call of Duty.

So rev up your engines, put the turkey on hold for just a short time and join the 2014 version of shop-‘til-you-drop.

Wise Shopping During Christmas Time

November 13, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

Get Ready! Get Set! Get Shopping!

Get Christmas shopping done ahead of time.

Anyone who is paying attention knows that holiday shopping begins earlier every year and this year October had hardly dropped off the calendar before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals were being ballyhooed.

And you don’t have to wait for the turkey to become skin and bones to get in on the bargains, according to the shopping experts. But the wisest shoppers will go into the season with a strategy and a budget, those same experts say.

Here’s how:

Set A Goal

Be a “mission” shopper. Have the list before you shop and know how much you can afford to spend without fracturing your budget. If you wander around with no clue, looking for the perfect gift, you’re likely to fall victim to impulse buying. And once that starts, it’s hard to draw the line. To help stay on task, plan your holiday shopping as part of a list of things to be done – for instance, picking up the kids from school. That creates a deadline that won’t allow you too much time to be tempted. Or shop with someone whom you know to be impatient and who will hurry you through the process.

Price Match

Avoiding impulse buying can help with saving money.

Price match at the many stores that say they will meet their competitors’ prices. When stores began to lose customers to online shopping, they backed away from non-matching policies. Such tactics have become part of the Black Friday experience. If you find an item you want, use your smartphone to check the prices at other stores. If you can point out a lower price to a cashier or manager, most will meet the competition. It’s worth a try.

Email Newsletters

Keep a separate email address for store mailing lists, subscriptions to daily deal lists and related shopping aids. That helps prevent clogging of your main inbox and streamlines your online browsing for the best deals. Sign up for deal alerts on retailer websites so you can do your shopping at home before facing the crowded stores.

Free Shipping

Be aware of shipping policies before you make your online purchases. Delays with UPS and FedEx left a lot of people giftless on THE day last year. Read dealer shipping information thoroughly, especially if you’re crowding the deadline. If the fine print says the goods will be shipped in a certain number of business days, remember that Saturday and Sunday won’t count. Avoid paying extra bucks for overnight or one-day shipping by allowing plenty of time.

Planning Key To Painless Yule Shopping

November 29, 2012 By Twila Van Leer

christmas-shopping — Budgeting Plans For Christmas

If you’re ho-ho-hoping to make it to 2013 with your finances intact, plan to plan. Impulse buying and overuse of credit are the twin bugaboos for some shoppers every Christmas, but there are ways to avoid these gifting traps.

Americans are likely to spend more this Christmas, because with the economic downturn abating, most Americans have more to spend. Matthew Shay, CEO of the Retail Federation estimates that holiday spending will increase by 4.1 percent or more. So if you spent $600 last year and are the average Joe or Jill, it is likely you’ll spend another $25 this year.

The statistics are bearing out Shay’s optimism. Over the past 25 months, there has been a consistent increase in retail sales each month. And some 60 to 65 percent of the American shopping population say they will rely on cash or debit cards this year, a good sign that the temptation to pile on holiday debt is going the way of the Ghost of Christmases Past.

Shay credits a good helping of better financial management to the recovering economy to explain the improvement. “We are using sound money management fundamentals,” he says.

Steve Krenzer, CEO of Pricegrabber.com, agrees that a bit of wisdom in the holiday shopping frenzy can salvage budgets that might otherwise be scuttled. His company compares prices on more than 80 million products and works with 40,000 merchants.

Krenzer says there are indications that shoppers are not always intent on getting the “bottom prices.” They factor in other details such as shipping costs, return policies and guarantees that may counterbalance the price. Shoppers engaging in “couch commerce” look at all of these angles before pressing the final button. More than 90 percent of today’s shoppers research their options before making purchases, he says.

This Christmas, it is apparent at the outset for Pricegrabber, that electronics are taking second place to soft goods — including clothing and other personal items — on many shopping lists.

Mondays and Tuesdays are the most active days for online shipping, Krenzer said, and women, as the “chief household officers” are more likely to be the family shoppers than men. The average age for shoppers is mid-40s.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos works hard at keeping a finger on the retail pulse. That is how the noted e-tailer, which employs more than 80,000 people, keeps at the top of the frugality game. Amazon’s market value has reached $114 billion dollars. He is constantly on the lookout for new products, many of them devised to address consumer complaints.

This year’s Kindle Paperwhite, an e-ink device that includes illumination for the first time, is one of those products. The product, moderately priced at just $119, is nerdily wonderful, allowing the avid reader to peruse his books in bed without disturbing a partner. That’s the kind of consumer consideration that makes Bezos the undisputed heir to the late Apple’s Steve Jobs as the poster boy for entrepreneurship in today’s market.

One of his strategies is to invent new products to push to customers. He encourages development of some of these after listening to consumer complaints. He released this product for sale this year: the Kindle Fire HD 7, selling for $199 plays streaming video and DVDs in true HD, is the most gifted item on Amazon.

Prominent e-tailers such as these are doing their bit to make the holiday shopping more stress-free. Wise consumers will piggy-back on their advice by researching before buying, looking at all the factors before making final decisions, avoiding “panic” buying and becoming aware of what’s really out there. As Santa himself would say, this way, “it’s in the bag.”

Fall Discount Shopping Tips

July 22, 2011 By Sherry Tingley

Shopping Early: Is It Really a Smart Thing To Do?

Fall is here! Well, maybe not quite yet, but retailers would have you think otherwise. From the Back-To-School sales being prominently featured in most department stores or home office outlets, one would never guess that it is still mid-summer. It won’t be too long before the Halloween and Thanksgiving displays start popping up- if they haven’t already. Some retailers, such as Target, are even pushing early-bird Christmas shopping sales with their “Black Friday” discounts in mid-July. Some of you may be internally screaming “Enough already!” We barely made it through the Fourth of July- now they’re pushing the upcoming holiday season on us? However, if you aren’t opposed to Christmas shopping mid-summer, you may be able to find some good deals that’ll save you money in the long run.

Buying School Supplies Early- Smart or Unwise?

With all the Back-To-School deals staring you in the face, you may be tempted to start stocking up on supplies for you kids now (much to their chagrin.) While all the sales displays are tempting, it would be wisest to wait. Chances are prices will drop even lower as the school year draws closer. Another reason to wait: although you may be tempted to stock up on binders, paper, pens and pencils for your kids, doing so now might wind up being in vain. Most teachers send out a list of required materials on the first day of school. And while you may be thinking you can’t go wrong with buying the basics, some teachers are particular about the materials their students use. That 1 inch binder you bought over the summer will go to waste when you learn your child’s teacher requires a three ring binder that is approximately 1 ½ inches. Likewise, all that wide-ruled paper will be worthless if your child gets a teacher who specifically wants 8 ½ x 11 inch college ruled notebook paper. So while it may seem like a good idea to stock up now, you’ll be doing yourself and your pocketbook a favor in the long run by waiting.

Is Early Holiday Shopping Worth The Investment?

Another holiday season is upon us, or so the stores would like us to believe. Not far from those Back-To-School displays, many retailers are getting ready for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and in some cases, even Christmas. While the saying goes: “The early bird gets the worm,” in some instances this is not always true. Expert penny-savers can tell you that the best time to buy holiday décor is immediately after the holiday, as this is when everything is marked down at its lowest. So while it may be tempting to run out and stock up on Halloween decorations in July, if you can hold off until November 1st, you’ll wind up saving a lot more money. However, the downside to this shopping method is that once the holiday has passed, not only are all the decorations picked over, the things you do buy will have to go in storage for an entire year. If you’re not opposed to waiting another year before decorating for Halloween, then waiting until the day-after is a great decision. If this doesn’t appeal to you, go ahead and stock up now, before retailers hike up prices as the actual day gets nearer.

Buying early for Christmas, on the other hand, can sometimes be a wise investment, if you are smart about it. All too often, early-bird shoppers are drawn into the stores by deep discount sales, only to end up spending more than they intended when they purchase things that are not on sale. Retailers know that customers are going to be tempted to buy more than just what they came in for, so they use the discount method to lure shoppers in. If you have strong willpower and are able to resist temptation, buying items (such as toys and electronics) as Christmas gifts can be a smart move if you get them while they’re on sale. No matter how hard you try to beat the rush, chances are you’re still going to find yourself in the stores shopping for last-minute Christmas gifts. This sad fact of life is pretty much inevitable.

If you go into the stores with a smart mindset then you are on the right track to making the most of your shopping dollars.

Don’t forget to yourself some money buy purchasing checks online.