Blue Light Special: How Sales Can Save Your Shopping and Your Pocketbook

Imagine consumers lightly jogging from the same starting point.  After a bit of time, some will begin advancing forward by natural athleticism or competitive drive.  Those falling behind, feeling self conscious, will pick up the pace, possibly advancing ahead, and thus inspiring others to pick up the pace. Competition is natural, and so is the inclination to save money.

Consumers know sales exist, mostly on a daily basis.  However, the identification and leverage of a sale is part of the competition, the ongoing game.  Therefore, perceptive shoppers constantly rove local papers, Web resources, and conversation to uncover the latest sale.

Local Papers

The Sunday paper comes packed with scores of coupons, but a number of people dismiss the ‘junk’ portion, literally throwing savings away.  Those who are smarter, finely peruse weekly coupons, unearthing opportunities in a number of local stores.  Local papers are great places to identify ‘door-buster’ sales; items vendors are willing to take a loss or significantly lower profit on in exchange for your presence.  Vendors hope additional purchases will more than compensate for the loss taken on the initial sale.  In best-case scenarios, vendors attract additional sales and new, regular customers.  On the reverse side, diligent and disciplined consumers, only purchasing the ‘door-buster’ item, benefit from the vendor’s strategy.

Web Resources

The Web is an additional avenue for finding coupon deals.  Search for ‘(your city) coupon deals’ as well as other iterations.  Some sites, such as Groupon, are branded as coupon treasurers, unleashing several deals on a daily basis depending on category.  Alternatively, rather than search for vendors in your city, search for coupons according to category such as ‘web hosting coupons.’  Taking the ‘game’ a step further, one could setup Google Alerts for key phrases regarding desired sales, such as ‘leather boots sale.’  Information related to a provided key phrase is delivered to one’s email as soon as it’s published.

Word of Mouth and Window Shopping

Take notice of items friends and family members are wearing and using, inquiring about the manufacturer.  It doesn’t matter where it was purchased; in most cases, vendors can ship desirables anywhere in the world.  Even during inconvenient times, consumers may swipe QRL codes with smart phones, maintaining coupons, Web resources and information leading to future sales.  In addition, get on manufacturers’ mailing lists; often, based on interaction and purchase, manufacturers send tailored and time-sensitive deals to brand advocates.  The purpose could be for building advocacy or reaching estimated budget for a period.  Regardless of reason, take advantage of the often and gracious gestures of large and small manufacturers with mailing lists.

Applications

Search through free and paid smart phone applications.  In addition to applications provided by popular retailers like Amazon, specific applications, focused upon sales, helps consumers identify current deals.  Make a game out of how many sales you can identify each week or month.  Keep track of how much money you’re saving through increased vigilance.

How much did you pay for your last pair of boots?  How much was the bill at the restaurant last week?  You overpaid.  Save money being strategic about locating and acting on coupon deals.

About the Author

Russell Matthews is passionate about saving money. He often writes about tricks to living well on a tight budget.