For retailers these days, there's no sense waiting for Black Friday to pour on sales and promotions, especially with the commerce department reporting consumer spending on food and retail was up in September, by one percent.
"It's not even Halloween yet. I'm concentrating on Halloween costumes and getting the pumpkins carved, not even thinking about Christmas yet" says Shopper Peggy Felt.
"Well if I honestly thought they were doing it to bring the deals out earlier ok, but I don't think they are. They're just merchandising earlier" adds Theresa McClary.
"I'd rather they wait until close to Thanksgiving" says Nadine Crockett.
Retailers around here are hoping to cash in on September's spike in consumer spending. According to the NYS Retail Council, the Capital Region tends to do better then the National average.
"You know we draw from such a large radius if you're a hundred miles away you'll still drive here because we have the mix of stores independent and national" says Ted Potrikus with the NYS Retail Council.
Unlike a decade ago don't expect stores to have a large inventory of items this season.
A smaller inventory allows retailers to offer lower prices, but there's a downside.
"It's a tighter inventory so if you do see something that you like and you think oh I'm going to put that aside because it will be 20% less a week from now, it might not be there."
On the other hand, know your limit.
"If I shop early then I tend to buy too much" Felt admits.
With deep discounts starting in October experts say whatever you do keep your receipt; it could come in handy come December.
"You know some stores will have a policy that if you buy something today and it goes on sale for a lower price down the road within a certain period of time you can get the difference" says Potrikus.
A whole new set of shopping rules for a struggling economy, keep your receipt, don't shop too early, or too late. For some it's too much to think about in October.
"It's still warm out; the leaves are on the trees."
For Felt, when the snow and cold weather arrives, she'll feel in the holiday shopping spirit. The Retail Council also tells CBS 6 layaway is back at most major retailers this year, another option for people who are trying to be more careful about using credit cards.
Gazing into Santa’s crystal ball, the retail experts point to the strong likelihood of weak sales during the rapidly approaching holiday shopping season. And with one aspect of the season, there’s no guesswork necessary: It’s all but guaranteed that shoppers will have their pick of more and more Black Friday sales—more Cyber Monday promotions as well.
The consensus seems to be that retail sales will be tepid for the upcoming winter holidays—no shocker given the sorry financial state of the American middle class. The economists at Deloitte predict a 2.5% to 3% increase over last year’s holiday sales, well below 2010′s 5.9% holiday sales growth over the prior year. The research firm ShopperTrak, cited by Daily Finance and the Wall Street Journal among others, also foresees a modest holiday period for retailers, with sales rising perhaps 3% over 2010′s season.
What’s particularly interesting is that sales revenues are expected to increase incrementally at the same time that foot traffic—the number of actual people hitting the stores—will decrease, reportedly by 2.2%. For stores, the trick to getting more money out of fewer shoppers is keeping prices high, rather than resorting to deep discounting of the past, and to attract wealthier customers who have more (or any) disposable money to burn.
Of course, retailers are bound to discount some goods heavily in the coming months—it’s a classic way to boost sales, after all—but what can consumers expect in terms of deals?
The experts at dealnews released their Black Friday predictions, and the crystal ball is showing 60″ HDTVs for under $700 and a 52% price drop on 17″ laptops compared to last season, among other things.
Meanwhile, ready or not, retailers have already begun playing up the holiday sales promotions. Many stores started lining shelves with Christmas items and displays weeks ago.
Whereas Black Friday—the crowd-crazed, doorbuster-filled epic of shopping following Thanksgiving Day—used to be a single day, it’s transforming into an entire preseason for the winter holiday shopping season. Last year, there were Black Friday-type sales promoted before and after actual Black Friday, and consumers can expect to see the phrase “Black Friday” used frequently (and creatively) throughout the upcoming shopping season.
Black Friday’s online offspring, Cyber Monday, is expanding as well. Last season, Walmart hosted an entire “Cyber Week” of online deals, rather than a single day. And over this past weekend, Sears announced an early season “Cyber Monday Unleashed” sale, in which the promo code UNLEASHED granted an extra 10% or 15% off online purchases of clothing, jewelry, and other select goods that were already on sale.
Sam's Club, like Costco, charges a yearly fee for the privilege of shopping at their stores. If you've already got a membership at Costco, however, there's little need to have two places to buy crates of diapers. But what if you want to take advantage of Black Friday and Holiday deals that are specific to Sam's? Now you can get $15, 15 week membership.
To get in on this deal, you need to get into Sam's Club stores today, October 10, since it's the last day of the program. It's also only open to new members, and you can use your membership to shop on their website as well. If you're set on buying a TV or some other similarly large item this Black Friday, you should be able to get your $15 back no problem.