The holiday shopping season is kicking into high gear and retailers are vying for your money.
Tis the season to get bombarded by email, text and TV with holiday sales, limited-time offers and doorbusters that retailers are telling you, you can’t afford to miss!
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“A lot of retailers have become quite sophisticated. They'll have countdown timers on their websites or say this weekend only or lowest price of the holiday season or whatever,” says Kevin Brasler, executive editor at Boston Consumers’ Checkbook, a nonprofit consumer watchdog. “And I'm telling you now, the best thing you can do as a consumer is just be skeptical of all this, because largely all these discounts are being offered aren't legitimate discounts at all.”
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Brasler says retailers use an arsenal of sophisticated marketing tricks to convince consumers to spend now and spend more. And he says the most common tactic is advertising false sale prices.
“The number one piece of advice I have is just assume that all the sales that are out there, all the discounts that are being splashed and ads and all over the place are all bogus,” says Brasler. “Most retailers these days, the list prices, they show the regular prices that they cross out and supposedly discount off of, they rarely, if ever, charge those prices. What they're doing instead is presenting you with an inflated price and then saying they're offering 40% off, 60% off. But in reality, it's not a discount at all.”
The only way to know whether you’re actually getting a legitimate deal or not is to shop around.
“Fortunately, the internet makes that pretty easy these days,” says Brasler. “Just doing a simple internet search, at least lets you know what other major retailers are selling that item for.”
When it comes to flash sales, don’t give in to the pressure to buy something quickly.
“I think that what retailers want you to do is to feel like, well, I better get off the fence and buy this thing. I better act now. I better not think about this,” says Brasler. “And it's all by design. It's all geared toward getting us to pay up and pay now and maybe even pay too much because we didn't shop around to see if we could find a better price somewhere else.”
There are dozens of smartphone apps and websites that track the best deals. Take advantage of them.
And don’t be afraid to ask a retailer to price match an item if you see it is being offered for less somewhere else. Brasler says it’s easy to do and can often can be handled at the register.
