It’s not easy searching through the flyers that come in the paper trying to find a good deal. But, reality is that that company had to spend money to print that ad and put it in the paper. It’s all cost to that company and they are going to try to recuperate that cost. How? Buy marking up their products of course. Thats the nature of business.
Here is a trick. Although shopping online can be a pain at times. You know, like waiting for packages and signing for things, in reality, you can save a lot of money if you do it right. Buying from large stores is good for security and ease of returns but you usually pay a higher price unless they are trying to clear their inventory.
You see, these companies can buy in large bulk amounts and get great discounts on products. For instance, a DVD player you might pay $199 for they get for $79 dollars. But, they have to pay bills, employees, advertisements like the flyer in the newspaper. All of these things add up. Although they say they bring the savings to you, in reality they have a high markup for their products and they have to just to stay in business.
So, how do I do my shopping online? I use many different methods. I like to use price comparison sites to find products that I know I want to buy and use review and price comparison sites like this site, to research products before I buy. That way, I know what I am getting before I purchase it and I am finding the best possible price without having to search all over the internet myself.
Another good tool, if you have not used is is Froogle. Froogle is a product of, you guessed it, Google and it offers a shopping comparison so to speak. Be careful with Froogle though. Anyone can post a Froogle ad. It’s like eBay but your credit card number goes to the person not to paypal. It’s more risky because you don’t know who is on the other end of that transaction and they could easily be a crook. So, make sure they have high reviews or they are a known name in the industry.
When we do our price comparison we only use “trusted” merchants because we don’t want you to worry about identity theft or getting robbed from your hard earned money.
Our trusted merchants have been around for many years, are well established in the industry and have physical store addresses. That way, we know their track record, we know how they perform in the industry and if we bought a high ticket item, worst case we can go knock on their door and get our money back. You should never have to worry about that with the merchants we list however because they are legit, large businesses.
Amazon is another place that is usually very cheap and you get your products quickly. However, when shopping on Amazon make sure you buy from Amazon. They do have options to buy from other merchants and Amazon has a market place like eBay where almost anyone can post something for sale.
Usually you will find a “buy new” section and a “buy used” section. If you click on these you will be taken to a list of merchants. If you simply add it to cart from the product page, unless otherwise stated on their page, you are purchasing from Amazon. They will state what merchant is selling the product if it is not from Amazon.
Another great tool is eBay. However, BE CAREFUL. The reason I say that is because, especially in the Holiday season, crooks are everywhere. People often will post an ad for a product that they don’t actually have. cheap shopping sites Their distributor may have it but they don’t have it in their possession. This can cause problems if their distributor runs out by the end of the auction. Make sure they have it in stock or you may find it a bit empty under the Christmas tree this year.
