Shopping Smart In Rough Holiday Season
Many people are concerned about spending money for the holidays this year.
But Early Show contributor and financial journalist Vera Gibbons says there's a silver lining to these tough economic times: Retailers are hurting as much, if not more, than shoppers.
That means there are incredible sales and bargains, if you know where to look.
Gibbons offered suggestions and real-world examples of savings Wednesday.
Retailers, she points out, are doing everything they can to sell, sell, sell.
"Black Friday" sales have already started, along with extended hours at many stores. Discounts are deep and wide-ranging.
LOOK ONLINE
In general, retail experts agree you'll probably find the best deals this season online.
Many brick-and-mortar stores are offering online-ONLY deals this year.
Some, such as Kohl's, have never done this before. The top of the Kohl's home page features a "Today's Extra Value, Exclusive Online Savings" button. One such deal: a $100 men's jacket on sale for $39.99. Another? A sterling silver and diamond-looking piece of jewelry, usually $175, now $49.99, a discount of more than 70 percent.
Target.com is also offering special "Deals of the Day" online for the first time. These deals change every day, and include a variety of products, from kitchen tools to home décor to clothing, toys and more. The deals are 40-50 percent off regular prices.
Also, K-Mart has some online exclusive deals, including bedding that's an additional 30 percent off online, and clothing that's gong for an additional 10 percent off.
To encourage even more online shopping, retailers are also releasing special Web-only coupons: Plug in the special code at checkout and save! If you see a space during your online check-out process that asks for a coupon code, you know one exists out there somewhere. You should definitely take the time to track it down.
One of the top new sites that collects all the online coupons of that type in one place is called RetailMeNot.com. Here are examples of some of the biggest savings they've found:
USE IN-STORE COUPONS
Want a coupon you can actually use in a store? Those are out there too!
Three suggestions:
LOOK ARO0UND
As always when looking for a deal, do some comparison shopping before you buy! We spotted a Flip Mino video camera -- a hot electronic product this season (the ultra-thin, pocket-sized camcorder records up to 60 minutes of video. It connects to your television for instant viewing. Built-in, high-speed software enables instant video sharing from any PC or Mac. You can even publish videos instantly on video sharing sites like AOL, YouTube, and MySpace) Best Buy and several other retailers sell the Mino for $180; Gibbons found it on Amazon.com for $160. Shipping is free, so that's a nice savings.
Typically, the higher-priced the item, the bigger the price differences you'll uncover. For example, Gibbons found a Panasonic LCD TV at Circuit City for $699, and the exact same TV on Amazon.com for $536, a savings of over 20 percent!
TRY TO GET STORES TO PRICE-MATCH
Realize that many stores have poorly publicized, or totally unpublicized, price-matching policies. In other words, more stores than you realize are willing to match a competitor's price, and many will offer you an additional discount of ten percent if you buy the item from them instead. What a great deal!
Well-known retailers with good price-matching policies include Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Circuit City, Home Depot, Kohl's, Lowe's, Sears, Staples, Toys 'R Us, and Wal-Mart.
NEGOTIATE!
Remember: Everything's negotiable these days! Yes, it's possible to haggle and get a better price on something, but you have to ask for it! You're most likely to succeed when you're dealing with more expensive items such as jewelry, furniture, and appliances. You may also have better luck at an independent store as opposed to one that's part of a large chain.
One example: An Early Show staffer managed to haggle quite a deal on a shirt that was originally $138. She found it for 30 percent off at Lord & Taylor. She then went to Bloomingdale's and saw the shirt again, on a sale rack. However, there were no tags attached. She managed to talk the sales woman down to just under $40!
When bargaining for a deal, you need to be polite, assertive and reasonable. That means doing some research/price comparisons ahead of time. Also, decide how much you're willing to pay before you start haggling. Start by offering a low price so you can move up as part of the negotiations. Depending on the item, you could start at about half of what the vendor is asking and expect to pay a-third less.