Wonder why the "hot deals" haven't been so hot this season? Here's some explaination. (news article link)

[VirtualLarry]

NYT article

Edit: added this quote

"This year, retailers tried - and in many cases, succeeded - in halting the cutthroat competition that had caused ever-rising discounts in the last five years, starting before Thanksgiving.

This holiday season, most analysts agree, stores offered less merchandise on sale. Gap, AnnTaylor, Pacific Sunwear and Urban Outfitters were particularly successful with their no-price-slashing strategy.

But that strategy means there may be a pent-up desire for bargains among teenagers and other price-conscious shoppers, analysts and pollsters say. Some people were out scouting shops this week, planning to scoop up their selections when the doors opened this morning."

 

[crobusa]

Heh, please send my condolences to your next of kin should the flames conusme.

Yes, the better economy has encouraged retailers to keep prices high, but they've since reported sales as "uneven", and "luxury stores are the ones meeting or beating expectations." I didn't spend much for christmas, and I know few who did.

 

[ReiAyanami]

Sharper Image and such stores reported 21% year on year sales increase, while the likes of Walmart and Target have trouble meeting the low end of their estimates 3%.

but Amazon announced record sales with 2.1 million orders in a single day, so their stock re-inflating the bubble, meanwhile eBay is at all time highs (higher than they were during the dotcom bubble)

how long till it bursts this time?

 

[conehead433]

For the most part it would seem that a lot of the retailers had some pretty good deals on Black Friday, although maybe not as good as in previous years. And then it seemed as if there were not any deals up to Christmas. Looks like they didn't want to have any loss leaders getting customers in their stores.

 

[Pothead]

Heh, please send my condolences to your next of kin should the flames conusme

:beer:

 

[StageLeft]

Some people were out scouting shops this week, planning to scoop up their selections when the doors opened this morning.

I was very much considering buying a bigscreen and would have done so today, but was unable to find anything appealing at all, so I'll hold on to my cash. I was hoping for some sales like what I heard about after black friday (I was oblivious to them until it was too late), and the best deal I could find today was at circuit city - "no interest on Hitachis for 24 months". Oh YAYE. What a deal

Most or all of the stores that article mentioned were clothes.

 

[Doomer]

Newegg got all my money this year.

 

[OneStepsAhead]

I bought almost all the gifts I gave people on-line this year. Hell, I even bought gifts for ME on-line, gave them to the family to wrap, and they gave me a check. Phooey on surprises, give me what I want and need!

On-line retailers cooperated by offering free shipping. Even without free shipping, I'd pay $5.00 to to have an order delivered, if it meant I didn't have to fight the crowds somewhere. I love a deal as much as or more than the next guy, but time has value, too!

 

[gflores]

Was it just me or were the Xmas sales really crappy? I liked BF's deals but I couldn't find anything exceptionally hot this christmas...

 

[Richardito]

Originally posted by: crobusa
Heh, please send my condolences to your next of kin should the flames conusme.

Yes, the better economy has encouraged retailers to keep prices high, but they've since reported sales as "uneven", and "luxury stores are the ones meeting or beating expectations." I didn't spend much for christmas, and I know few who did.

That is because our multi-class social structure is becoming a basic two-class system (almost like Mexico). The rich have been able to accumulate even more wealth in the past years, which amounts for the high-end stores beating expectations with the rich spending their money. The rest of us are slowly getting poorer...

 

[rasputinj]

I did about 80% of my shopping online, saved money and did not have to hassle the crowds.

 

[justdad]

There are good indicators and more bad. We in middle class america may get to pay more for everything again but inflation is still on the low side and that does help out quite a bit. By the way folks middle class america has grown some so don't be fooled by some of the estimates showing top wages as they were not adjusted for many years to compensate for inflation in the last 15 years to show properly.
In my opinion they still have not adjusted properly for inflation that has taken place over the last 20 years. at one time 15$ an hour was a great wage, well in southern and northern california it is not enough to pay the bills with the cost of real estate what it is here.

I guess this is definately not the place to discuss this although the subject matter may get some of us "hot". Hot deals are based on many many things. I hated taking the standard college courses (economics, statistics,) Than corporate finance which is pretty much economics again. Dang, I am getting one of those special headaches again. ha ha . :wine:

Sites like economy.com have info on these ideas. Never take one persons word for it...

 

[mikeford]

I'm a last minute shopper, and this year as I went from place to place I found NOTHING special at all, so I cut my list down to just a few items and plan to shop later like next week etc.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: rasputinj
I did about 80% of my shopping online, saved money and did not have to hassle the crowds.

 

[ReiAyanami]

i think its a good sign consumers aren't going to walmart for the Xmas shopping. do u really want a gift from walmart? plus since online shopping increased 48% over last year as evident above, obviously it will bite into traditional B&M. shift happens

but YAHOOMAZONBAY is still overvalued, although the train won't derail until wall street finally realizes they can't grow 100% year on year on year...

 

[sxr7171]

Online retailing is still a very small fraction of total sales even if it is getting bigger. In the past good B&M deals has been where it's at for us ATHD people. I mean any monkey can find the lowest price on an item using pricewatch/pricegrabber and get the best "normal" deal. Hot Deals is about seeking out those price anomolies that mostly occur in the B&M sector and rarely from online retailers

However, this year sucked for us, and it even sucked for regular people who want to see decent sales (mild hot deals). With the B&M situation as it is sometimes it is better to just settle for the best online price and not deal with B&M. I don't think I spent even 10% of what I spent last year in B&M stores and I increased my online spending.

After a while sometimes you begin to think that it just isn't worth dealing with lines, getting to the store, sending in rebates, risking non-fulfillment etc. to get those mediocre B&M hot deal savings. Now last year had some deals that were worth all those hassles.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
Sharper Image and such stores reported 21% year on year sales increase, while the likes of Walmart and Target have trouble meeting the low end of their estimates 3%.

but Amazon announced record sales with 2.1 million orders in a single day, so their stock re-inflating the bubble, meanwhile eBay is at all time highs (higher than they were during the dotcom bubble)

how long till it bursts this time?

I really don't understand why people buy stuff at Sharper Image. I am a huge gadget geek, but I go into their stores and either think their stuff is either a) cheap ugly crap (any of their audio systems) b) crap that simply doesn't work (Ionic breeze anyone?) or c) stuff I can get cheaper at Best Buy (digital cameras and whatnot).

Amazon, on the other hand, is a company that I've always felt was going to rule the on line shopping world. I was impressed with them back when I first placed an order back in 1998, and they have gotten better ever since. Their prices may not be the cheapest all the time, but they have done a great job every time I've dealt with them (Newegg has been the same way). They really did great for me this Christmas. I did a lot of last minute ordering of gifts for my family on the other side of the country on Dec 18th, and all the packages arrived around the 22nd and 23rd (even a few items got there on time that Amazon originally told me were going to be arriving AFTER Christmas, which was doubly impressive). Plus it was a lot less hassle than buying it here and shipping it at the Post Office or a UPS outlet. Shipping was cheaper, too. I think a lot of people are starting to realize that shopping online is a really good way to get gifts for your distant friends and family, and so I expect online shopping will keep expanding for they next decade.

That's what a lot of people never got about the last tech bubble. It burst not because the idea of e-commerce was a bad one, but because the technology was still immature (it is hard to do online shopping without broadband) and people hadn't learned its strengths and weaknesses yet. There will always be things that will never work online (like selling petfood) but other types of business almost work better online than in B&M stores (computer equipment, books, music). I think when historians look back at the internet bubble of the late 20th century, it will parallel the growth of the video game industry. The video game industry had its own boom and bust in the early 80's, also caused by the limitations of immature technology and bad business decisions, but the fundamental idea was so good that when the time came the industry was able to rise from the ashes and grow into an economic powerhouse. The same will be true of e-commerce and internet technology. It just has to have enough time to grow into a stable sector of the economy. The people who wanted to get rich quick a few years ago just never realized that it was going to take some considerable time before it matured and some people were going to pick the wrong horses and lose a lot of money before it all worked itself out. These kinds of people always exist. They are the same kind of people who drove Atari stock to unnatural highs, lost a lot of money and then scoffed at Nintendo's chances of rebuilding the market. E-commerce will be a major economic engine of the 21st century. It is almost inevitible (barring a nuclear war or an asteroid strike). It may just take a few years for it to find its footing. I think this past year has been a big turning point, however, with the online Christmas boom and the rise of online music sales (among other things).

 

[DribbleDrive]

Originally posted by: batmanuel

{snip}
Amazon, on the other hand, is a company that I've always felt was going to rule the on line shopping world. I was impressed with them back when I first placed an order back in 1998, and they have gotten better ever since. Their prices may not be the cheapest all the time, but they have done a great job every time I've dealt with them (Newegg has been the same way). They really did great for me this Christmas. I did a lot of last minute ordering of gifts for my family on the other side of the country on Dec 18th, and all the packages arrived around the 22nd and 23rd (even a few items got there on time that Amazon originally told me were going to be arriving AFTER Christmas, which was doubly impressive). Plus it was a lot less hassle than buying it here and shipping it at the Post Office or a UPS outlet. Shipping was cheaper, too. I think a lot of people are starting to realize that shopping online is a really good way to get gifts for your distant friends and family, and so I expect online shopping will keep expanding for they next decade.

That's what a lot of people never got about the last tech bubble. It burst not because the idea of e-commerce was a bad one, but because the technology was still immature (it is hard to do online shopping without broadband) and people hadn't learned its strengths and weaknesses yet. There will always be things that will never work online (like selling petfood) but other types of business almost work better online than in B&M stores (computer equipment, books, music). I think when historians look back at the internet bubble of the late 20th century, it will parallel the growth of the video game industry. The video game industry had its own boom and bust in the early 80's, also caused by the limitations of immature technology and bad business decisions, but the fundamental idea was so good that when the time came the industry was able to rise from the ashes and grow into an economic powerhouse. The same will be true of e-commerce and internet technology. It just has to have enough time to grow into a stable sector of the economy. The people who wanted to get rich quick a few years ago just never realized that it was going to take some considerable time before it matured and some people were going to pick the wrong horses and lose a lot of money before it all worked itself out. These kinds of people always exist. They are the same kind of people who drove Atari stock to unnatural highs, lost a lot of money and then scoffed at Nintendo's chances of rebuilding the market. E-commerce will be a major economic engine of the 21st century. It is almost inevitible (barring a nuclear war or an asteroid strike). It may just take a few years for it to find its footing. I think this past year has been a big turning point, however, with the online Christmas boom and the rise of online music sales (among other things).

(sorry this is going off topic a bit, just wanted to share another analogy)

An analogy one of my college professor used for E-Commerce is comparing it to the US automotive market a hundred years ago. A hundred years or so ago there were around 6000 american companies in the united states making cars. Today in the wake of multi-national corporations, only Ford and GM are the mass-production american car companies left.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
Sharper Image and such stores reported 21% year on year sales increase, while the likes of Walmart and Target have trouble meeting the low end of their estimates 3%.

but Amazon announced record sales with 2.1 million orders in a single day, so their stock re-inflating the bubble, meanwhile eBay is at all time highs (higher than they were during the dotcom bubble)

how long till it bursts this time?

The difference between now and a few years ago is that Amazon's rises numbers are based on actual sales and actual profit, where before it was based purely on speculation.

 

[BeauJangles]

damn double post

 

[kof]

Getting a little back on topic prior to lock:
For two years running I could pick up decent scanners, USB hubs, CD's for free AR,
The best deal I scored this year was the 120Gb hard drive for $10, and that was in April ?.
Hopefully the retailers are not going down the drain, but it seems that the loss leaders have been lost..

 

[artist99]

Yes, the better economy has encouraged retailers to keep prices high

what planet are you on? the economy is in tatters.

 

[artist99]

Yes, the better economy has encouraged retailers to keep prices high

what planet are you on? the economy is in tatters.

 

[RideFree]

batmanuel,
Just about the clearest assement on the internet facts-of-life that I've encountered.
Sounds like a PolySci/Econ403 prof got 'hold of you and made a student out of the raw material he found.
Shucks, you even capitalized "Christmas".
"Seven thumbs-up"!
(Sorry, I was off-topic.)

 

[GTFan]

Originally posted by: kof
Getting a little back on topic prior to lock:
For two years running I could pick up decent scanners, USB hubs, CD's for free AR,
The best deal I scored this year was the 120Gb hard drive for $10, and that was in April ?.
Hopefully the retailers are not going down the drain, but it seems that the loss leaders have been lost..

You're not looking hard enuff... I just scored a Minolta Color Laser Printer (2300W) for $-21 AR thanks to LukFilm at BS...

sale price from Staples was $700.