Shopping Smart, Early In Holiday Season
Many of us will start our holiday shopping soon, if we haven't already.
Friday is "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. And Monday has come to be known as "Cyber Monday," when many people sit down at their computers, ready to shop online.
Whether at the mall or on the Internet, there are strategies to help you get the most for your money, and find what you want, and The Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen spelled some out on Tuesday.
According to National Retail Federation numbers cited by Koeppen, the most desired gifts this year include books, CDs, DVDs and video games; clothing or accessories; and gift cards.
Koeppen noted that Black Friday means big sales, but also big crowds.
So, the retail federation suggested a clever strategy: Sometimes, if you shop the night before a sale, after 6 o'clock, you might get the sale price and beat the crowds, because a lot of stores put the sale price into the computer the night before a sale begins. Mondays and Tuesdays are ordinarily regular price days; stores tend to put things on sale Wednesday through Sunday.
And, Koeppen points out, you should always ask about any upcoming sales, especially if you're buying a big ticket item such as a big screen TV. Also, don't be afraid to ask stores to match prices other stores have.
Consumers are expected to lay out some $32 billion online for gifts, in what would be a record year for such shopping. Cyber Monday has emerged as the leader of the pack for retailers online.
Koeppen also says free shipping is going to be big this year, with an estimated 60 percent of e-tailers offering it.
The best sites to use to do comparison shopping online include shopping.com, pricegrabber.com and shopzilla.com, according to Koeppen.
On the other end of the spectrum, fraud involving returns is likely to cost retailers $3 billion this season, so 25 percent of retailers are tightening their returns policies; all the more reason, Koeppen says, to give gift receipts and hold onto the ones you're given.