The bells are rolling… we already can hear the jingle bells coming from the distance as the months roll by quickly. Everyone is eager and excited for the big celebrations ahead. For some families this is the only time in the year they all get to see every member of their family all present at the dinner table, to some it’s a time to spend quality time with friends and loved ones and exchange gifts. It is no news that Christmas celebrations always lightens the mood and brings in all the smiles. To some people the laughter continues for more months especially kids and loved ones with their happy presents, and to the rest of us our smiles are quickly caught off in the month of January when we are faced with angry credit card bills starring us hard in the face and ready to slit our financial throats…
I was expressing this concern to David a very good friend of mine one beautiful Tuesday afternoon, as we were looking at last year’s Christmas pictures being slide shown on his 19inch
electronic frame. I recanted how I always over shoot my Christmas spending budget and with the nations recent economic turmoil, this Christmas was giving me the shivers. He smiled and asked when I usually do my Christmas shopping and my naturally response was “when everyone else does theirs which is 2-3 days to charismas.” “That is the problem” he retorted. He went on to tell me that him and his wife decided a long time ago to quit buying Christmas presents and gifts with the general public because they realized they were constantly being ripped off by retailers. And it saves them the headache of standing in huge lines, limited in-stock availability due to significantly high demands, worrying if the products they ordered would arrive in time for gifts exchange. In doing so he then realized that he was able to cut down his cost by half. Pointing at the 19inch digital Photo frame on his wall he said it only cost him $270 from an online digital frame warehouse when he purchased the digital frame two months before Christmas, out of curiosity he decided to check back a week from Christmas to see if he could quickly order another one for his parents but to his amazement the same frame which sold for $270 was now a whooping $385 and was available in limited stock. Grudgingly he purchased the electronic frame because at least from prior experience he knew the digital frame was going to arrive no later than two days after purchase, because they always guarantee fast expedited shipping, which these days are extremely hard to find, other online retailers demand paying a special expedited shipping fee.
The Magic of shopping before Christmas or as my friend David calls it “the big rush” are
- It helps cuts your spending budget at least by half
It is no news that during these periods of the year is the only time there is huge demand for everything And retailers know these and always capitalize on these because people must give gifts to their friends, colleagues and loved ones it’s become a tradition, so they increase the prices by 200% especially electronics, nobody notices since its rush to shop at Christmas. Then at Christmas they lower the prices and display advertisements of 70%, 80% even up to 90% off, making the average customer believe everything is cheap while actually the prices have been secretly inflated up to 110% and in some insane cases up to 130% the original prices before the charismas rush. I mean you can’t really blame them these are the only periods they make huge sales and make up for losses they had encountered throughout the year.
- It saves you the headache of worrying if your order would arrive in time
Sometime things happen that are beyond our control and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Freights get missing, items get shipped to the wrong address or worst still in some cases the wrong item gets shipped. The benefit of ordering before “the big rush” is that the company you ordered from online has the time and space to correct the error and either give you a refund or re-ship your item and you are guaranteed it would still get to you before the big “Gifts Exchange Day”. Now imagine if any of those mishaps happen a week or two before Christmas. Do you think you would be able to rectify the problem before Christmas? Certainly not, and the worst part is staring at the sad faces of those who were expecting something nice from you and trying to explain why they did not receive anything from you or Santa.
- More options to choose from
It is common economics that when demand suddenly increases exponentially supply rapidly falls or causes what is called a “shortage” making less available at very high prices and limited options to choose from because almost everything is “Sold-Out”. Everywhere you go you start seeing
out-of-stock banners and signs and out of fear of being left with nothing to buy, the retailers force you to settle for low quality products or go for something completely different than what you initially wanted to buy. Ridiculous you say… I know
Who has ever shopped at Wal-Mart or Sams Club on Christmas Eve or two nights to Christmas? The lines are a nightmare. A friend of mine recanted how he had to stand for 3 hours last Christmas Eve just to get a new TV. That was just one retailer; I haven’t mentioned Bestbuy or Target. By buying before “the big rush” you find out that you not only save yourself the fatigue, stress and loss of valuable time you also save money, Because when you bought your items 2-3 months earlier the prices have not gone through the retailers 200% price increase loop. Where they increase the original price by 200% and offer sales of 80-90% off, unbeknownst to the customers who are led to believe they are having a fantastic deal while they are still being over charged a 100% to 110% more than they would have paid for the same item before the price heist.
In these economics chaos isn’t everyone trying to save even if it is a few cents, believe me it is something and it all adds up. Take advantage of shopping early and not till the last minute and be among the few who are wise in their spending.