With the best bargain
shopping day of the year nearly here (Nov. 23), shoppers are advised to adjust
their shopping habits to the reality of Black Friday’s new sale schedule. Consumer World offers these holiday shopping tips to help
bag the best bargains:
1. Read the
Ads: Preview the Black Friday sale circulars now at bfads.net, and get a list
of sale items at all stores by category, such as all HDTVs, at
blackfriday.gottadeal.com . Check local newspapers on Thanksgiving Day. They
will be chock-full of circulars and last minute deals. Friday’s papers will
include additional sales. Get on retailers’ email lists, check their websites
for additional unannounced bargains, and look for deals and coupons listed on
their Facebook pages.
2. Evaluate the
Deals: Not all Black Friday advertised items are great deals. Others will
become available the weekend before Thanksgiving, on Cyber Monday, or in
mid-December. To separate the ho-hum from the good deals, use several of
Consumer World’s pricing tools, such as the Price Checker at ConsumerWorld.org
(to compare prices at many online stores instantly), and PriceHistories.com (to
compare today’s price for an item to what was charged over the past six months).
If shopping online, find out the total price including shipping and tax (if
any), and what the reputation of the seller is using BizRate.com or
ResellerRatings.com .
3. Research the
Right Product: A low price on a lousy product is no bargain. Check websites
where professionals evaluate products, such as Consumer Reports,
Steves-Digicams.com (for cameras), PCMagazine.com (computers), best/worst toy
lists, etc. Also, nothing beats reading customer reviews by real owners of the
products you are thinking of buying. Check Epinions.com, and read the user
comments posted after most product descriptions at Amazon.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment