Kennedy: Black Friday shopping 101

photo Mark Kennedy

Ruth Kittle is as mad as heck, and she's not going to take it anymore.

Kittle, a 49-year-old home-health worker who lives in East Ridge, has had it up to her eyeballs with retailers who advertise price-match guarantees, then riddle them with loopholes.

Almost as bad, she says, are companies that tout Black Friday door-buster sales, but just have a handful of the deeply discounted items in stock. Today's cash-strapped families are too busy to deal with these fine-print fake-outs, she says.

"I'm sick to death of being misled when I go into a store," Kittle said. "I'm tired of it."

Kittle said she recently tried to get a discount store in Brainerd to honor its price-match pledge, only to be told that the company's policy doesn't apply to digital ads, only ads printed on paper.

Kittle said she likes shopping after-Thanksgiving sales, but she often finds that the devil is in the details when trying to cash in on advertised specials.

"I hate to spend hours with the papers, and then go out shopping and be told you didn't stand the right way or hold your breath long enough," Kittle said.

She said she understands when door-buster items are in limited supply, but believes that companies should be up-front in their ads. If they have just six big-screen TVs on sale for $199, the ad should say so. Then consumers can do the math and decide for themselves if they're willing to stand in line and roll the dice.

"Two years ago I stood in line for an Xbox knowing that there were only 30 and I was 50th in line," Kittle said. "I knew I probably wasn't going to get one, but I had a shot."

To help Kittle and others hitting the malls this holiday weekend, I'd like to share some findings from a study published this month by WalletHub, a personal finance social network.

Much is at stake, as Americans are expected to spend $619 billion during the holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation.

WalletHub says it scrutinized 5,525 Black Friday deals advertised by the nation's 21 largest retailers to see which companies are offering the deepest overall discounts this weekend.

Then it ranked the retailers. The Top 10 for deepest overall discounts were, in order: J.C. Penney (average advertised discount 65 percent); Macy's (54 percent); Rite Aid (53 percent); Meijer, a Midwest retailer (51 percent); Sears (50 percent); Walgreen's (47 percent): Office Depot/Office Max (44 percent); Ace Hardware (41 percent); Kohl's (40 percent) and Staples (39 percent).

So which stores have the best sales in different merchandise categories?

Here's what WalletHub found: apparel, Sears (average discount 69 percent); electronics and computers, Office Depot/OfficeMax (40 percent); toys, Kohl's (48 percent); appliances, J.C. Penney (50 percent); jewelry, Kmart (78 percent).

In addition to crunching numbers, WalletHub also rounded up some unbiased retail experts to share shopping strategies.

James A. Roberts, professor of marketing at Baylor University, said: "Just ask yourself, 'Is there really a Santa Claus?' If you answered 'yes,' we need to have a talk. Otherwise, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Read the fine print. Often there are severe limits on the number of advertised items available or the advertised items are of such poor quality that you get what you paid for."

Tahira K. Hira, professor of personal finance at Iowa State University, said the best strategy for holiday shopping is not getting up before dawn on Black Friday but looking for bargains throughout the year.

"... Buy during January and July sales and other sales that come along throughout the year," she said. "Know your budget limits; how much are you able to spend for various people on your list. And then keep your ears and eyes open for the good deals throughout the year."

Mathew Curtis, assistant communications professor at the University of Southern California, said holiday sales are designed to get people thinking more about savings than budgeting.

"Your focus should not be on how much you saved," he said. "If you saved $500 but spent more than you can afford, was that saving of $500 sensible? Focus more on what you spend, not what you save. ... It is easy to manufacture reasons as to why you have to buy something. Instead, think about what you cannot have if you buy that thing."

Deborah Owens, associate professor of marketing at the University of Akron, said sticking to a list and buying only for others can be good brakes on overspending.

"Only buy what is on your list, and avoid the hype by only purchasing those items that you know in advance are great deals," she said.

Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPCOLUMNIST. Subscribe to his Facebook updates at www.facebook.com/mkennedycolumnist.

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