Black Sale Friday

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Black Friday 5am mad rush

Just before the 5am sale at pearl city walmart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS6a7P5eXZ8&hl=en

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Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Economics of Valentine's Day

Could Cupid be the economic stimulus that we sorely need this year?

Ok, I exaggerate slightly, but judging by this past holiday season's dismal performance, Valentine's Day might just be the panacea for our socio-economic woes.

The Christmas shopping season began with a mediocre Black Friday shopping experience as shoppers vacillated between spending during the festive season, and saving their hard-earned cash for a rainy day. No doubt as the new, more streamlined and fledgling economy cautiously emerged from the wreckage generated over the past year, it has become apparent that shoppers are still hesitant to plunge headlong into the wild-spending patterns that characterized previous Christmas shopping periods. Indeed, many stores extended their discounts till even after the new year, in order to capture those consumers who held out for the cheapest deals. But what's clear was the this time around, Christmas shopping didn't even come close to the 69.9 million shopping orders placed around the same time in 2008, nor did it reflect that just a year before, $12.8 billion worth of goods and services were ordered and consumed by Canadian households.

But what about Valentine's Day?

It's timed conveniently enough that the gloom of the Christmas season doesn't sour it over too much. And although it's technically only been half a year since the recession "ended" in 2009, it is really our first occasion to celebrate under the auspices of a recognized holiday this year. It affords us the opportunity to celebrate love and relationships, and also revel in the excitement of the cheery predictions made for the new year and the new decade to come, helping us reverse some of that negativity.

For this Valentine's Day, many pundits predict a definite upswing in consumer spending. While it may not match Christmas madness in sheer volume, it should at least (just this once) beat it in terms of shopping enthusiasm and optimism. Projections for this year augur that although couples may spend less on one another, overall spending per capita will increase. Extrapolating from American data, Canadians are expected to spend about nearly $103 per capita this Valentine's season. Data from Stats Canada tells us that businesses collected nearly $1 billion in sales from chocolate-induced madness, sold approximately $312 million - or a whopping 18.6 million litres - of sparkling wines, and more than 13.7 million stems of roses each year. Of course, not all of that was spent in February, but one could easily reason that Valentine's day could claim a significant portion of these spendings.

Moreover, with the Canadian dollar coming up to parity with the U.S. dollar this year, predictions abound that Canadian consumers will take advantage of crowdsourced, comparison and cross-border shopping engines in order to find the best deals to spend their money on. Hopefully a spending resurgence can be revived through the use of these ingenious online tools for Valentine's Day preparations, and if popularized by the shopping drive for V-Day, for a vastly convenienced shopping experience in the time after as well.

We may not share that kind of fiscal insanity this year (maybe next year), but any bit of productive spending will help buoy the consumer-driven economy that we have. Perhaps the cheer and bonhomie of this festive season will tide us over the bad times and remind us of the good ones again. After all, just like in relationships, so in real life - shouldn't we be making the most of every opportunity that comes our way?

For more information, read the The Economics of Valentine's Day on the Wishabi.ca blog. Brought to you by Prashanth Gopalan at Wishabi.ca.

Friday, February 26, 2010

4 Great Tips That Will Help You Avoid Being Cheated on Black Friday

Black Friday is coming around once again this year and it is often a time when people who are either starting to finish off their holiday shopping or may be just beginning. However Black Friday is not the promised land of saving and discount that it is on first blush. You have to do your homework and prepare properly so that you know what you are in for. If you keep this in mind and enter with a more realistic outlook you can still find some great saving on your Christmas shopping.

Look for some of the Black Friday sales to be earlier this year. This year more store are going to be starting their sales earlier. It can be from this Monday right to midnight Thursday. So pay attention to your local news and when you are out on the town so that you won't miss out on these great sales. You don't want to come the day of Black Friday and find out many of the sales you were looking forward to have come and gone.

You should also try to pay attention to the small print on some of the sales adverts. They will tell whether some of the offers may be too good to be true. Here are some big things to look for. First the phrase limit per customer. This means that inventory will be low so you should be prepared to get in quickly to get the sale items on your shopping list. Also you should look for fine print that says only an x amount of items per store. This means these items will be sold very fast. Unless you are a veteran shopper you should avoid the ensuing rush for these products.

Also expect more online sales for Black Friday. Online sales are becoming a big part of sales for retailers this year so you can expect to find some discounts online. This does come with a caveat. Just like store sales there will also be limits on the products and there is also the likelihood that they can run out. So make sure to take precautions similar to going to a regular Black Friday sale. Make sure that you are online early and ready to make your purchases. Know ahead of time what key sales to look for. Also since you are shopping online try avoid scams by confirming the website is the store's official one and all online transactions are secured.

Also try to avoid being cheated by derivatives when purchasing electronics. Sometimes a TV or washer will be advertised at an amazing price only to be replaced by an inferior model that looks similar but doesn't have the same features. These are called derivatives and you should make sure to know the model number for the advertised item so you can tell the difference. That way you will be sure to avoid this particular Black Friday scam.

Something special you can do for your kids this holiday season is to have them get a special phone call from Santa. This will make Christmas a magical experience as they get to speak to Santa in person on Christmas day. You can order the call online and customize it with information from your children's Christmas letters. Do something that will be unforgettable for your kids this holiday.

Create magic in your child's eyes with our letters from Santa. EZSantaLetters.com offers fully personalized Santa letters and 15 pre-written Santa Letters. All letters are postmarked from the North Pole and will definitely put a smile on your child's face.