Holiday Shopping Tips
Dec. 2, 2014
Donald Lichtenstein
We’d all like to get the most out of our holiday shopping dollar and the best way to
do that, says Donald Lichtenstein, a business professor at the University of Colorado
Boulder, is take the time to prepare yourself by researching prices, quality and
brands before you hit the stores or the Internet.
CUT 1 “How do you get that information? Well you need to find an unbiased source,
somebody who doesn’t have anything to gain by what you decide. Not a sales
person. (:10) Personally, I rely on Consumer Reports. This is not an ad for Consumer
Reports, they’re not paying me or anything like that, but that’s what I do. I go to
Consumer Reports and look independently of price, what the quality rates are. It has
served me very well over the years.” (:28)
He says being prepared can save you money, steer you away from
overspending and even change your whole way of thinking about purchasing gifts
during the holidays.
CUT 2 “There are some product categories where when you pay a higher price you
do get higher quality. And there’s other ones where price and quality just don’t
relate to each other at all. You’re just as likely to get a high quality item by paying a
low price as a high price. (:15) And then you’ve got a third category of goods where
the relationship between price and quality is actually negative, meaning that as you
pay a higher price you get worse quality.” (:26)
And Lichtenstein says that you should not rely on price or brand names as an
indicator of quality.
CUT 3 “One mistake many consumers make is that they rely on price or brand
names as an indicator of quality. They’ll say you get what you pay for -- the higher
the price the higher the quality. (:09) Many consumers follow that and will go out
and buy a higher priced item because they believe they are getting a higher quality
item. Nothing can be further from the truth in terms of a generalization.” (:20)
He says there are many ways to research quality and price but a good place
to start is online.
CUT 4 “There is no substitute for going online and spending a little bit of time -when you’ve decided what it is you’re looking for -- using shopping bots,
shopping.com, bisrate.com and also visiting particular merchants who you know
carry the item and looking at the prices they charge.” (:21)
Lichtenstein also advises shoppers to be aware that there is a multitude of
advertising efforts at work geared toward getting them to spend more.
CUT 5 “I think it’s two major things here. One is vigilance. Vigilance on quality,
vigilance on price, vigilance on what merchants are doing, vigilance on, ‘Am I
actually going to use that product?’ (:14) And the second thing I go back to is,
during the holiday season, don’t get caught up in the emotional shopping. Don’t
think I’ve got to buy the best gift for this person and how much they’re spending on
me and getting into this social exchange.” (:28)
Other shopping tips Lichtenstein offers for consumers:
- Be wary of stores that offer price match guarantees. Market research has shown
that retailers offering these guarantees often charge higher prices.
- When shopping with coupons avoid buying a product just to “get a deal.” Instead,
use coupons on products you usually purchase and plan to use in the relatively near
future if they have a limited shelf life.
- Shoppers should be cautious of reference price advertising – such as “was $79.95
now $49.95.” In many cases, says Lichtenstein, the starting prices are inflated or
fictitious.
-CU-