With the season of gift giving right around the corner, many Southern Californians gobbled up their Thanksgiving dinners and headed out to get some early shopping done.
According to experts, inflation may make holiday shopping tricky for consumers and they may not be spending as much this year as they have in the past.
“Some Christmas shopping, some to spoil myself,” said shopper Monique Colima when asked what kinds of things she was looking to buy.
The Thanksgiving, Black Friday crush might not be as intense as it used to be, but people are already starting to line up outside of their favorite stores where sales range from 40%-50% off.
“What I’m seeing right now in terms of things to focus on over cyber weekend would be tech, for sure,” Tra Bodge, a smart shopping expert at Truetrae. “I’m seeing discounts in the 50%-60% off range, and then fall fashion, beauty, small home appliances.”
Bodge said shoppers should wait until December to purchase winter apparel, toys and anything holiday themed. Another tip was to use online deal sites to save more on top of sales at brick-and-mortar stores.
Many online retailers will automatically alert you to available cash back options and run coupons for consumers at checkout.
“I’m sensing overall this very heavy discounting in stores as retailers try to get us to shop, but consumers pulling back in response to what’s happening with inflation and, of course, what might happen next year with the uncertainty next year,” Bodge told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff.
Inflation rates as high as 7.7% have many families scaling their buying habits back.
“I’m actually trying to tell people now, if you want something for yourself, I’d rather give you cash or just let me know what want…because I’d rather get them what they wanted instead of spending money on nonsense and they’re not even using it, right,” said shopper Flor Roz.
KTLA’s shopping expert said that while many people will be shopping in-person this year, just as many, if not more, have gotten comfortable with shopping online in their pajamas.
Bodge also said that there’s typically more of a selection when shopping online.
Soruce : https://ktla.com/news/local-news/holiday-shoppers-hit-socal-stores-in-search-of-deals/