Category: Shopping

Getting into the swing of the online shopping experience right about now? It seems that you have to simply because for the past two months almost every “non-essential” retail outlet has been closed down due to the coronavirus. So like it or not, your computer/tablet/phone is your shopping outlet. But, pandemic or not, don’t be too surprised if online shopping will be how you will shop…forever!

A Little Retail History

I’m going to skip past Org and Thor exchanging animal furs for food and go right up to the world of America in the 1800’s to save a little time here.

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Every year I am amazed at how many people ask me when is the best time to buy certain items that they need. Unfortunately, my reaching out to a few friends and acquaintances helps only a little bit. Most people buy things on impulse or just when they absolutely may need something and never have a well-made plan when they do it. No matter how many times I see it, I have to shake my head and ask, “Why didn’t you wait or didn’t you know that it was just on sale last week?”

The prices of most things that are “on sale” are sometimes questionable. By that I mean: sale prices are determined by the retailer and that’s why items at one store’s prices are sometimes very different from another. Competition has an effect and helps keep prices in line and similar, but not always. There are other factors such as seasonality, store location (like a resort gift shop compared to your local Kohl’s store when you need a bathing suit, LOL), and the amount of inventory a store has on hand at any given key time of the year.

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The biggest shopping event of the year is fast approaching: Thanksgiving weekend. Whether it’s Black Friday sales, the Saturday and Sunday afterwards, or the “Cyber Monday” sales that are the big internet shopping days, they are the markers for most retailers that take them from being in the “red” each year to being into the “black” and profitable!

Actually, they should call the entire weekend “green weekend” for that very reason!

Black Friday weekend kicks off the first of the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas that will determine a retailer’s fate for a successful holiday season. One thing for sure is that saving money and getting a really great deal is totally possible. But also possible is that you can get caught up in the whole crazy shopping experience and make some purchases you regret or even worse, purchases that you just can’t really afford! That’s the reason the phrase “buyer beware” is so appropriate even during this, the time when you are most involved with shopping and saving’s glee!

It’s here already! With Columbus Day (or Indigenous Peoples Day if you prefer) done, the holiday shopping season is here. Shoppers are preparing for the holiday season earlier and earlier every year and your challenge is not to get lost in the shuffle. It seems it was just a few days ago we were all sitting around the pool and enjoying summer and now, guess what? Halloween is just two weeks away and it’s almost November and the official shopping countdown has begun!

If you haven’t given it any thought already, it’s good to think about it right now so you can officially kick your holiday plans into high gear. That’s because more consumers are expected to start their holiday shopping earlier this season, even moreso than in years’ past.