Best websites for a local bargain

Are you sleuthing for a sale, looking for a new gadget or do you just like the feeling of getting the better end of a deal? Here's a bunch of sites for bargain hunters that support local business.

Did we miss your favourite website? Let us know about it in the comments below.

Catch of the Day is pretty well known by now, but for those who haven't heard of it, it's a local site for flash sales. Every day, new sales will be posted with limited availability — sometimes lasting days, but most often mere hours. If you're a bit of a thrill seeker while looking for a bargain, watching Catch of the Day's midday countdown to a sale that you're particularly looking forward to can be quite a heady experience. Otherwise, there are selected pop-up sales to check out every day.

A little like Catch of the Day, DealFox has daily sales with heavily discounted items. Unlike Catch of the Day, though, it also has product categories that you can browse, so if your shopping interests are a little more specialised or you're not really super keen on shopping by chance, you can check out its Health & Beauty, Manchester, Sport, Outdoor, Office & Tech, Toys & Games, Homewares and Lifestyle sections for a variety of limited-time sales.

Less of a sales site and more of a department store that's really, really inexpensive, OO.com.au (it stands for "only online"), has a whole heap of stuff available at jaw-droppingly low prices. Some stock is limited, but it will constantly rotate its stock, so you can usually find what you're looking for. According to its information page, "When shopping at OO.com.au, you will save up to 80 per cent off retail prices on quality branded products in over 30 department store categories."

It also says, "Being a retailer that sells predominantly online, we are able to provide a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week service at a substantially lower cost base than traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers who have to operate many physical stores with high rents, wages and distribution overheads. Because we don't have these overheads, we do not need to charge the same high margins they require in order to sustain their businesses." This certainly makes the IT pricing inquiry interesting, does it not?

Big Brown Box is a great place to get bargains on home entertainment. Like OO.com.au, it lowers overheads by operating solely online, passing those savings on to the consumer. In addition, it holds regular sales — at the time of writing, it has a sale on big-screen TVs and PVRs in honour of the Olympics, as well as a warehouse clearance sale on end-of-life products. All major home-entertainment brands are represented, and free delivery is available Australia wide on all purchases over AU$100.

Appliances Online is Big Brown Box's sister site, and it operates in a similar fashion, only, naturally, for home appliances. Everything from handheld blenders to whitegoods can be purchased at competitive prices from a huge number of big-name brands. It doesn't have free shipping, but it will ship to anywhere in Australia, and it takes customer service very seriously indeed.

We don't quite like Deals Direct as much as OO.com.au; for starters, the prices aren't as low, and a lot of the products are off-brand; but, on the other hand, it has a pretty big catalogue, so you'll usually be able to find what you're looking for.

Do you have an eagle eye for a bargain, or are you just a keen shopper? Either way, OzBargain is the place for you. Users submit bargains they come across, and other users can vote on the usefulness of said bargains ... and, of course, you can find some pretty sweet deals.

And that brings us to BuckScoop, which is pretty much the same: users post about bargains, which get points based on how many people buy the products in question. It also offers cash back for purchasing via BuckScoop — and you can find coupons, competitions and freebies.