Holiday Electronic Shopping

It's hard to believe but the big holiday shopping season is just a few weeks away, but what kind of deals can you expect this year when buying electronics?

Thursday, October 15th 2009, 6:23 pm

By: News 9


By Joel Craig, NEWS 9 Contributor

It's hard to believe but the big holiday shopping season is just a few weeks away, but what kind of deals can you expect this year when buying electronics?

As you probably know, retail sales in general are down. Stores are going back to traditional holiday decorations in order to provide a warm nostalgic feeling.

In electronics there isn't any "must have" new item and the industry is predicting sales to be down at least two percent. That may not sound like much but in a multi-billion dollar industry we're talking big bucks.

So what does all this mean to you? Strong promotional pricing. Retailers are going to want you in their store and they are going to pull out all the stops to do it.

Even items that are currently popular like netbooks and smaller screen size TVs are going to be highly promoted. There'll be the expected opportunities on the Friday after Thanksgiving. But also watch your newspapers and look for TV ads that aren't as glitzy as a major retailer would normally do - those are usually last minute ads with strong price cuts.

Retailers will typically hit the panic button come December if sales are worse than expected providing even deeper price cuts. Sounds great huh? Of course it's all a prediction but stores will be pushing accessories to go along with any major product purchase. Things like screen cleaners, mounts, cables and ink are high profit items meaning stores will push you to buy them to help offset the big sale items.

While some accessories are needed, you just don't have to buy the most expensive one available, for example, HDMI cables.

HDMI is used by digital TVs, costs around $2 to manufacture and typically sells between $10 and $30. Don't be drawn in by gold colored ends and fancy packaging, with digital the signal is all there or it isn't, pretty doesn't really make the cable better.

Also you can make your own screen cleaner with a couple of drops of baby shampoo in a bottle of water.

So look for ads, and be wary of all the unneeded accessories when you plan your holiday shopping.

logo

Get The Daily Update!

Be among the first to get breaking news, weather, and general news updates from News 9 delivered right to your inbox!

More Like This

October 15th, 2009

March 22nd, 2024

March 14th, 2024

February 9th, 2024

Top Headlines

March 28th, 2024

March 28th, 2024

March 28th, 2024

March 28th, 2024