Now that we’ve stuffed ourselves with the Thanksgiving fixings, it’s off to the stores and malls to stuff shopping bags with deals and bargains. Wait, not so fast. Black Friday may not really be the day to get the best prices for your holiday items and gifts.
A study conducted from mid-November to mid-December 2010 by Consumer Reports and Decide.com discovered “… the lowest prices of the season on the included items were not on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, the day following the Thanksgiving weekend. For example, more than a quarter of the recommended TVs and cameras were at least 5 per cent cheaper between Cyber Monday and December 13 than they were earlier, including during the Black Friday weekend.”
“There’s no doubt you can score some incredible bargains by getting up extra early or staying up past your bedtime to take in the midnight madness sales,” says Consumer Reports’ senior editor and shopping expert Tod Marks in a PR Newswire release. “But retailing trends suggest that the opportunity to score a great deal won’t end this weekend. So there’s no need to panic.”
So shop if you must today — but buy only if you think it’s truly a great deal.
