Speaker 1: Well, black Friday already kicked off in early October. This is going to be a really weird and complicated holiday shopping season. You're gonna have to deal hunt a little differently, but I can tell you how to stay sane this year. Maybe listen. It's 2021. Nothing makes sense. So why should you expect black Friday to make sense anymore? Right? There are going to be these waves of sales just happening throughout the [00:00:30] season. Amazon started calling them black Friday worthy deals, and they're laid out on the epic deals section of Amazon's website. Over at target it's called deal days. Some are actual good deals. 40 50% off. You got your TV discounts. You got your gift cards with purchase. Best buy also jumped in the game with early flash sales. Even the shopping channel QVC was pushing a black Friday sale before anyone had their Halloween decorations up.
Speaker 1: These retailers [00:01:00] need you to shop early big, cuz we're going through a real supply chain problem. You see there's this massive backlog of cargo ships, just waiting to get into the California ports. We're talking ships, just sitting in the water, waiting to be unloaded for three weeks. There's also a shortage of trucks and drivers that actually get the stuff from the ports and everyone is shopping more or online. So it's this ripple effect of issues from the pandemic. Everything is taking way longer to arrive and you have stores [00:01:30] not getting enough product in time for demand, which leads to at big Christmas disaster, but it doesn't have to be a disaster. The biggest tip I have is when you, I hate to hear, but yes, you have to start shopping now like now, now that's, if you want gifts to arrive in time and certain items like hot toys and video game systems will be harder to find in stock.
Speaker 1: As we get closer to the end of the year. Now you may be asking, well doesn't black Friday and cyber Monday [00:02:00] have the best discounts and shouldn't you just wait for that. You black Friday will have some hot discounts, but no, this year you shouldn't always wait. Let's say you shop at target at target. You do not have to worry about shopping early and then feeling like you're missing out on better deals later that's because of Target's price match policy. If the price of an item drops between now and Christmas Eve, you can ask target to adjust your charge and honor the lower price. And if [00:02:30] a competitor lowers the price, they'll also adjust it within the two week return period. But every retailer is different. Take best buy. For example, it has a black Friday price guarantee. And that means if you buy something on sale early and best buy drops.
Speaker 1: The price of that item anytime before and during actual black Friday, well, the store will refund you the difference. But when it comes to trying to match prices with the competition, that's where things get wonky best buy says it will not [00:03:00] actually do price matching on black Friday week. And as for Amazon, well forget Amazon. They don't have any policy, but in general, if you want something specific, you will not want to wait too long. You have to think of black Friday as you're shopping dead. It's no longer the start of the shopping season. You need your game plan together by Thanksgiving. All right, this is stressing you out. I have some helpful tools and tips to make [00:03:30] the shopping madness a little easier this year. If you're trying to get a hot item like a game console, let's say the new Nintendo switch Olin.
Speaker 1: Just prepare your to know it will not be an easy quest. Don't give up right away. If it's out of stock, sometimes retailers have been intentionally releasing stock in small quantities to discourage bots from buying up product online. Here's another tip to make life easier on everyone. You should always ask for gift receipts. It's getting artery each [00:04:00] year to return unwanted gifts at stores, unless you have some sort of gift receipt. Even returning socks at Macy's feels impossible. Now without a gift receipt, I'll tell you from personal experience I tried last year, I did not even get a gift card with store credit. Now they have these weird store credit checks they mail to you days later. Yeah, this has just been sitting in my wallet for forever because I can't even use this credit online. So [00:04:30] always be kind and check that little box that says this is a gift when shopping online and always ask for one from the cashier at a store, since the cost of goods has gone up for oh, everything deal.
Speaker 1: Hunting is important. Price comparing can be a chore, but you may want to use some browser helpers. One is called price blink. It's an add-on tool. You download and it finds coupon codes while you shop and compares prices at other stores. [00:05:00] It, if you're shopping in person at a store, check out the app, shop savvy, it can come in handy. You scan the barcode of an item to know if another store is selling it for less and right there at the register, you can show your phone to the cashier to get a price match. It's actually worked for me at best buy they've honored other prices. Sometimes you just save a few bucks, but if you're waiting in a long line anyway, why not try it? Amazon shoppers can take advantage of a few other tricks. You [00:05:30] can share your prime membership with another family member and it keeps your personal account separate. So you don't spoil any surprises, but the other family member can still get some of the shipping perks. Also not many people know about Amazon warehouse deals. This is a special separate page. The sells products that were returned or opened, but they may still be perfectly good. They don't come with the manufacturer's original warranty, but if you get a
Speaker 2: Lemon, you could still return it back to Amazon in the normal 30 [00:06:00] day window. Let's say you are putting off a gift because you're not really sure if someone's gonna like the gift or you don't have their home address. That's not a problem on Amazon anymore. You could just put the item in your shopping cart, mark it as a gift. And all you need is the recipient phone number or email address. You don't need their home address. Then on the other side, the person who's getting the gift. They get a little alert. Yay. You got a gift and they can choose to accept it and submit their address to have it mailed [00:06:30] to them or choose to exchange it for an Amazon gift card. Now, of course, shopping early means your family's start getting presents delivered to them way early, but Hey, you know, that's just how it goes this year. May all your holiday shopping go smoothly.
