Should you wait or shop now on early Black Friday deals?
Big retailers like Walmart and Target aren't waiting until Black Friday to advertise deals, but a consumer group warns many of those sales might not actually save you any money.
Researchers with the nonprofit Consumers' Checkbook spent six months tracking prices on dozens of items at 25 major retailers and found most advertised markdowns were bogus.
In most cases, the tracked products were routinely listed "on sale" and rarely ever sold at the price from which they claimed to be marked down, according to Consumers' Checkbook executive editor Kevin Brasler.
"They're lying to you," Brasler said in a recent appearance on the new CBS News Philadelphia In Your Corner podcast. "Most major retailers continuously lie to their customers and mislead their customers by using these list or regular prices that are not the prevailing prices for those items."
The products tracked were selected based on the company's primary offerings, like power tools at Home Depot, clothing at Kohl's, or big-ticket electronics at Best Buy.
Brasler said it's a ploy to make you feel good about the prices you pay, and to convince you to buy now and buy more.
"What they're doing is they're introducing this potentially time-sensitive deadline for you to buy this thing," he said. "What you as a shopper need to know is these deals are not going away, there's no pressure, there's no rush to make this purchase."
Brasler said Consumers' Checkbook found most major retailers are guilty of this pricing practice, with a few exceptions, like Costco and Apple.
"Costco very infrequently discounts stuff that it's selling. When it does, it's because it's going to discontinue the item and wants to get rid of it," Brasler said. "The other company we found that doesn't offer really sales at all is Apple."
Price-tracker tools like Keepa and Camelizer, which is a browser extension for the website CamelCamelCamel.com, can help you figure out if an item is truly on sale. Google also has a price insights feature on its shopping pages to help you determine if something is priced higher or lower than usual. The CapitalOne Shopping browser extension can help you compare prices across different retailers.
Brasler said retailers are violating clear-cut laws, but those laws aren't being enforced.
You can hear more on the new CBS News Philadelphia In Your Corner podcast, which is dedicated to helping you find solutions to better manage your money, spot the latest scams, and know your rights as a consumer so you can protect yourself.
Each week will feature a different guest expert. You can find new episodes posted every Wednesday on the CBS Philadelphia YouTube channel.
Looking for help with a consumer issue? Click here to submit your complaint to In Your Corner.