While Black Friday sales are always a grab-bag of merchandise ranging from winter apparel to giant plasma TVs, Cyber Monday is more about the products favored by the technophiles that created it: electronics. And the key product category this year is likely to be low-priced netbooks that have thrived during the recession. 

While items like video-game consoles, DVD players and e-books will be on sale Cyber Monday, analysts expect most of the focus to be on netbooks and mini-laptops. “The promotions on Cyber Monday will essentially be the same ones we saw for back-to-school with rock bottom prices on netbooks and small laptops,” said Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis for The NPD Group.

While most retail sites have not announced their Cyber Monday sales yet, there are rumors floating around which hint that mini-laptops and netbooks will be priced around $100 for screen-buster promotions.  Rumored deals include iMacs and MacBooks on sale for up to 10% off, a Linux SSD Netbook with a 9-inch screen for $129 and a Basic laptop with a 15-inch screen for $249.

Baker said the promotions should be effective traffic drivers for retailers but said netbook prices have fallen so fast this year that finding an attractive price point is tough. “Even a netbook priced at $99 isn’t that big a deal anymore,” said Baker.

One thing that could help laptop sales is the recent release of Windows 7. Online retailers are expected to install a stripped-down version of Windows 7 on netbooks and use it as a selling point on Cyber Monday promotions.

Traditional retailers are using desktop computers to drive traffic online and in stores. OfficeMax is expected to sell a Compaq Presario Desktop for $239.99 on Cyber Monday and Wal-Mart is rumored to be putting a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion on sale for $299. Other promotions circulating in the rumor mill include Garmin and Tom Tom GPS systems for $69 and digital picture frames for as little as $29. Another product that’s expected to figure prominently in Cyber Monday specials are Blu Ray DVD players, with prices dipping below the $100 mark for the first time with free shipping thrown in.

In any event, online electronics retailers can expect better sales on Cyber Monday and beyond compared to 2008. A CEA survey estimates spending on electronics during the holidays will increase 8 percent. The CEA also estimates that 80% of consumers plan to buy at least one consumer electronics product as a gift. “Pent up demand for technology products is evident in consumers’ gift wish list and holiday CE purchase plans,” said CEA director of industry analysis Steve Koenig.

Resources

Spending on CE to Increase this Holiday

Black Friday Deals Will Feature I-macs, Netbooks

COUPON TIME

Our Cyber Monday sale page has the best deals around. Check it out!

I regularly hang out with first-graders, as I volunteer at my kids’ school every week.  Last time I was there, the first grade announced to me that one boy was absent because he has the Swine Flu.

“No, he doesn’t,” the librarian informed them.  “We don’t know if he has the flu yet.  But he is home sick today.”  (I never said that first-graders shared accurate information!)  I decided to seize the moment and informed the first-graders that whatever this child has, he’s right to stay home, and that he should eat some chicken soup and have some orange juice so he can get healthy faster. That derailed them into a discussion about healthy things to eat and got them off the topic of who’s got what disease.

The bottles of hand sanitizer are multiplying at the school, and I end each library session by disinfecting the tables, chairs and computer keyboards.  It’s got to be done–because the kids just share way too much in that school!

COUPON TIME

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I’m talking about the huge disparity among manufacturers in terms of sizing clothes. 

My seven-year-old is small and slender. For school this year, I bought him size 8 Slim pants. They just fit in the waist; I was this close to returning them for 8 Regular, but I was afraid that those would fall off.

He needed some new jeans a few weeks ago, and I was at the Old Navy website getting some jeans for his older brother, so I figured I’d piggyback the two orders.

Let me tell you, buying jeans or pants for a teenage boy is easy.  Just measure and shop.  That’s all there is to it!  Pants are sized by waist and inseam, so there are no tricks involved here.

Not so with the little kids (or with girls–that’s a whole different story right there!)  Size 8 Slim at the school-uniform company and size 8 Slim at Old Navy are very, very different.  Old Navy is a lot more generous with the fabric–especially around the waist.

After my younger son put on his new jeans and they immediately fell to the floor, I checked the label on the jeans, the package, and my receipt to make sure I’d ordered the right size.  Yes–8 Slim.  I don’t get it.  Luckily, I didn’t have to return those jeans.  I found a hidden “magic waistband” inside when I checked for the size label.  The waistband had an elastic insert that was adjustable through the use of cleverly-placed buttons.  Nice!

If it were up to this mom, all pants would be sized the same way teen boys’ and men’s pants are:  waist and inseam.  All this guesswork makes me crazy!

COUPON TIME

20% off orders of $75 or more at The Children’s Place
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Best Buy Black Friday deals are a closely held secret, but below are the details of sales and promotions already being advertised, some of which continue through Black Friday.

From Nov. 2-30, Best Buy has $1199 computer package deal, which includes HP desktop PC with monitor, HP Laptop. HP mini netbook, Netgear wireless router, and Geek Squad in-home set-up. Yes, that’s 3 computers, wireless router, and technological support in one price. The price is for the package only, so returning one item means the whole package.

Other computer deals are laptops from $350-$1000, netbooks for $300 and $400, and Gateway’s all-in-one computer/monitor with touch screen display for $650.  Home entertainment systems start at $2000 for flat screen TV, Blu-Ray and Surround Sound, seems hefty but saves on all those $50 movie night costs.

A “Do You Want to Be a Black Friday VIP at Best Buy?” article provides details on $1,000 gift card contest. To enter, “Best Buy consumers in 25 cities are asked to share in 250 words or less what they are most excited about this Black Friday at  www.bestbuyvipcontest.com through Nov. 20, 2009.  One winner in each of 25 regional markets is notified on Nov. 24. In 2008, Best Buy received almost 13,000 entries.

What do the 25 winners receive? “[A] $1,000 Best Buy Gift Card and full VIP treatment including: a limousine ride to and from the designated Best Buy store, special seating outside for the winner and three special guests, and early admittance into the store at 4:30 a.m. Each winner will also receive an Insignia® Digital Camcorder to document their experience.”

Besides the $1,000 gift card contest, Best Buy is promoting two additional Black Friday contests:

• “Instant VIP: Mystery gift cards will be distributed to the first 50 people in line on Black Friday morning. The gift cards will range in value from $5 to $25, with one gift card in each market valued at $100-creating an Instant VIP at checkout.”
• Text To Win: Starting on Black Friday …text to win contest in which customers can text in their holiday survival tip for a chance to win a smart phone courtesy of Best Buy Mobile^TM every day through December 19 or one of 25 $100 gift cards.”

A “Best Buy Unveils Holiday 2009 Strategy” video has various Best Buy company spokespeople announcing that it is hiring more seasonal workers in 2009 as 2008 to handle customer service and that it still matches competitors’ prices. One speaker admitted that “it’s a great time to be a consumer” and that his number one personal gift for the holiday season is a netbook.

Best Buy is on Facebook and Twitter and is targeting its teen and female demographic. Appealing to teens, Best Buy has a new breed of gift card, called Pitch-in Card. Multiple family members and friends can contribute dollar amounts and the shopper can use the card throughout the year-there’s no expiration date!

The Geek Squad service is emphasizing a need to maximize consumer’s technology use since we only use about 5% of the technological power held in all the gadgets we own. I have to agree.

Resources

“News Center.” BestBuy. http://www.bestbuyinc.com/news_center/news-year/2009

COUPON TIME

Want to compare Black Friday deals?  Check our Black Friday sale page!  And follow us on Twitter for the latest deals each and every day.

What’s the deal on Cyber Monday? Netbooks, laptops, computers, or anything electronic. And this is not just for Cyber Monday or Nov. through Dec. holiday shopping, but for total online sales. Add up consumer spending on electronics and computers and more than half of the purchases are made online.

Trends indicate that online shoppers are buying more and more of their computer hardware, software, and electronic needs online. According to a US Census Bureau’s report, in 2007, 32.5 billion, or 54.5% of total retail sales for the two categories of computer hardware/software and consumer electronics were made online. In the same report, the percent projected for 2008 was 59%, or 36.7 billion online sales for computer and electronics categories together.  It’s interesting to note that the Census Bureau projects the online sales of computers/electronics to increase to 67 billion by 2012.

In an Oct. 2009 holiday poll by Consumer Reports, “the top items that adults are planning to give this year are clothing (52 percent) and electronics (51 percent). In the electronics category, video games or accessories topped the lists followed by game systems and MP3 players or iPods.”

On Cyber Monday, we flood computer and electronics online retailers’ websites. comScore calculated that on Cyber Monday 2008, Best Buy sites had a 131% increase in website visitors from its daily average, Apple, Inc. website had a 43% jump, Dell 53%, and Hewlett Packard 94%. All four were in the “Top 20 Most Visited Retailer Sites on Cyber Monday” in 2008, reports comScore.

Computer Deals - Trends for 2009

The hot item in 2009 may very well be the netbook: a smaller, lighter, and much cheaper version of a notebook. Lance Whitney of CNET reports, “Netbooks are projected to grab a 20 percent share of the worldwide market for 2009 . . . . Consumers are expected to scoop up almost 33 million Netbooks this year, marking a sales gain of close to 100 percent from last year’s 16 million.” Prices run from $150 to $700, but some of the lower prices require a wireless contract.

In contrast, desktop PC sales are declining. Erica Ogg of CNET explains, “The culprit in this case is the fading out of the desktop computer. Shipments of desktops are expected to decline 18.1 percent this year, as notebook PCs become ever more popular. Notebooks are on track to grow almost 12 percent this year, for the first time outpacing desktop shipments for a whole year.” The trend for personal computing is mobility; we are on the move.

Add favorite online retailers to your Facebook and Twitter accounts for up-to-the-second holiday deals. The National Retail Federation says, “More than half of retailers said they have added or improved their Facebook page (60.3%) and Twitter pages (58.7%) this year, while two-thirds (65.6%) have added or enhanced blogs and RSS feeds.” This is the new trend for advertising, and many sites offer shoppers personally-customized email alerts.

A popular holiday gift we like to buy for ourselves is a new laptop, i.e. notebook or netbook. This year, the new netbook will be useful to monitor those Tweets, RSS feeds, and emails on laptop deals. After the deals have been offered up, it’ll be interesting to see if we have the willpower not to buy a laptop for the kids as well.

References

“Attractive Discounts Bring Deluge of Buyers to Retail Sites on Cyber Monday.” comScore.com 4 Dec. 2008. http://comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2008/12/Cyber_Monday_Discounts/(language)/eng-US

Grannis, Kathy. “Online Retailers to Emphasize Free Shipping, Social Media this Holiday Season.” National Retail Federation. 22 Oct. 2009. http://nrf.org/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=808

“Holiday Poll: Shoppers are Tightening Belts, not Buying Them.” Consumer Reports. 29 Oct. 2009. http://blogs.consumerreports.org/money/2009/10/holiday-shopping-poll-consumers-cut-back-on-holiday-spending.html

Ogg, Erica. “Report: 2009 to be PC industry’s worst year since dot-com implosion.” Cnet.com. 14 July 2009.  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10286496-92.html?tag=mncol

United States. Census Bureau. “Online Retail Spending, 2001 to 2007, and Projections, 2008.” US Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/09s1016.pdf

United States. Census Bureau. “Projected Online Retail Sales: 2007 to 2012.” US Census Bureau.18 Jan. 2008. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/09s1015.pdf

Whitney, Lance. “Netbook Sales to Rise as Notebooks Fall Flat.” Cnet.com 13 July 2009. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10285189-92.html?tag=mncol;txt

COUPON TIME

For all the latest Cyber Monday sales, visit our Cyber Monday deals page!  And don’t forget to sign up for our Twitter feed as well:  there are all kinds of great deals listed there.

Having had betta fish before, we warned her that keeping two of these feisty but beautiful fish in the same bowl wasn’t a good idea.

“I can do it,” she insisted.  “They’re a boy and a girl.  They won’t fight each other.  Then they’ll have baby fishes!”

I suspected that any “baby fishes” they produced would be Mommy and Daddy Fish’s next meal, but I kept that to myself.

Two days later, she called me, shrieking.  “My fishes!  They look terrible!  I have to bring them back to the store.”  Wondering if the fish were losing their color, or what exactly was wrong with them, I asked her what she meant by terrible.  I hoped that she wouldn’t offer to let me inspect them, since I don’t do dead (or dying) fish.  Then I suggested that she call the pet store where she bought the fish and ask an expert what she should do.  Bring a water sample in for testing, maybe?

Turns out that “terrible” means “the male fish has a lot less of his tail and fins than he did yesterday.”  Those fish were not happy together in the same bowl.  So she headed back to the pet store and got another fish bowl to separate the two fish.

They’re happy now that they’re not both in the same bowl, but she’s not.  She’s mourning the loss of the “baby fishes” she was hoping for.  But she knows that if the male survives a few more months, his tail and fins will grow back as beautiful as ever.

COUPON TIME

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Use promotional code PERKS2 in your shopping cart. (Code must be entered in all caps.)
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Free shipping on orders of $50 or more at Petco
Use promotion code affreg in your shopping cart.
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That surprised me.  I’d have figured that carpet installations would peak in the late spring and summer, when the weather’s nice.  But according to the folks who owned this store, many people buy carpet right around Thanksgiving.  They’re busy counting flatware, pulling out the turkey serving platters, and ironing the tablecloths–and they notice just how bad their floors look.  Maybe they’ve been considering a purchase of new carpet for a while, but now that company’s coming, it’s got to get done.

Personally, I just don’t think that way.  I’m all about making sure the furniture looks good.  If company’s coming, I’ll make sure that every room in the house is dust-free (ordinarily, you can write your name in the dust on my coffee table.)  I’ll force my kids to put away all their puzzles, Bakugans, and Wii remotes.  And, irrationally, I’ll organize the coat closet and the linen closet, because my guests really care about whether my towels are stacked in color order.  But the floor?  I’ll vacuum, sweep, and mop up anything sticky–and that’s it.  Once my company leaves, then I do a good cleaning of the floors, because after a big holiday meal, my floors are going to need it.

COUPON TIME

Looking to spiff up your decor before you have holiday company?  These deals can help you save!

Free shipping on orders of $85 or more at Plow & Hearth
Use promotion code PHFREE during checkout.
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15% off orders over $50 at Collections Etc.
Enter promotion code 3GZZC5 during checkout. Instead of seeing the dollars off discount listed separately, the prices of the items in your cart will be reduced.
Valid through: November 30, 2009
Online orders only. Discounts (percentage off and dollar off) do not apply to SALE priced items. May not be combined with any other offer. Offer does not apply to Collections Etc.’s eBay store.
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Our Thanksgiving Sales page also has some great deals for the upcoming holiday!

by Robin Fiedler

On Nov. 9, 2009, Staples released its new Holiday Center for holiday gifts, stocking stuffers, and cameras, printers and laptops and its Nov. 8 - 14 weekly sales ads. The best deal I noted is a paper shredder for $10.

Possible stocking stuffers include new “Staples-exclusive products for as low as $10, “such as Omnitech^TM Digital Ornament and Omnitech^TM Mini Pod Speaker” for $9.99 each, also $1-$2 deals on spiral notebooks, Staples stickies, colored pencils, and markers. 

Staples pre-Black Friday sales include laptop deals starting at $500, netbooks from $300 for the Acer (the basic Acer is  hovering at $270-$350 with the big retailers), GPSs from $150 and up, digital video cameras from $200 to $350, and digital cameras from $130-$230. Some digital cameras include a Staples $50 gift card. My weekly ad has almost 3 pages featuring a wide range of printers from $60 up to $475.

The must ‘thing’ to do for 2009 holiday shopping is to follow your favorite retailers on Facebook and Twitter, and Staples is joining the e-ads craze for Staples Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Expect Staples, and others, to be tweeting Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Your local Staples brick-and-mortar sales ads may have different prices and product sales, so Circular Previews is where shoppers “can preview weekly ads to get the inside look at upcoming offers on items and sign up to receive sneak peeks delivered directly to their inboxes.” Waiting for physical mail may be too late. A growing complication this holiday season is that online deals may vary from in-store promotions.

Special offers for Staples Rewards customers are “the Wednesday ‘Holideal,’ a one-day savings bonus on select items online and in stores” (customers must have coupons for in-store Holideal savings).

If you are a contest kind of person, Staples has a Holiday Sweepstakes “with the Staples Tech Bundle-a-day Giveaway, each day, starting Nov. 30 (Cyber Monday) — Dec. 25, one lucky winner will receive a $1,000 technology bundle. . . The prize will include a Windows 7 HP Laptop and an HP Photosmart Premium Touchsmart Web All-in-One. More information will be available starting Nov. 30 at www.staples.com/dailytechgiveaway. It’s worth a try.

Online orders qualify for free shipping on orders over $50. And so, I went to check out the $10 paper shredder, and it’s out-of-stock online. My local store says the shredder is a “low stock clearance item;” looks like I have to go for a drive. Also, note that the $9.99 price is after a $20 rebate. Expect the paper shredder scenario to be common for holiday shopping 2009 with low inventories on loss leaders and doorbusters. I’d better hurry.

Resources

“Staples Delivers Sneak Peak into Incredible Savings for the Holiday.” Staples 9 Nov. 2009. http://investor.staples.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=96244&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=1352787

COUPON TIME

Our Black Friday deal listing is second to none!  

There’s no doubt consumers are more confident now than they were at this point last year, but that’s not saying much.  Sales during the holiday season of 2008 declined 4.5% - the sharpest drop in 40 years - and forecasts for this year are that sales will essentially be flat.

With that in mind, Black Friday promotions are likely to have that recession-era feel once again with a focus on low prices and giveaways.  In 2008, consumers were lured into stores with $10 gift cards just for walking in the door and deep discounts on limited edition items like computers and TVs.

That bargain-basement tone was re-established by Wal-Mart in October when it announced plans to price more than 100 toys under $10 in an amplified version of its “10 Toys for $10″ promotion from 2008. Wal-Mart did the same for books when it lowered the pre-order price for 10 high-profile books due out this fall to $8.99, an offer that Target also picked up on.

Wal-Mart went even further on October 21 when vice-chairman of stores Eduardo Castro-Wright announced the chain would stage “weekly deep savings events” starting in late October. “We made a purposeful decision to focus initially on everyday staples as well as items that often require larger spending commitments in preparation for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said Castro-Wright.

Department stores are expected to appeal to frugal consumers as well by promoting everyday apparel essentials on Black Friday and playing down discounts on discretionary items like jewelry.

Despite recent increases in retail spending, including a 2.8% jump in chain store sales in the second week of October, the comparisons are being made against dismal sales numbers from the same time in 2008. The annual Spending Intentions Survey from The NPD Group showed that 30 percent of consumers plan to spend less than they did in 2008, a 4 percent increase from 2008.

“That 4 percent increase is certainly a sign of the times,” said NPD chief industry analyst Marshall Cohen. “One the other hand, that 4 percent is not as dramatic as it could have been.”

One study from Dallas-based research firm The Hay Group suggests many retailers plan to put less emphasis on Black Friday this year, with only 35 percent of major chains surveyed saying that Black Friday will be their biggest promotional day of the year compared to 45% in 2008.  Participants in the survey included Target, Best Buy and American Eagle.

Retailers are also operating in a country where the number of unemployed people is 50% higher than it was in the fall of 2008. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment at the start of October stood at 9.8 percent compared to just 6.2% in October 2008.

Footnotes

Unemployment by Month 1999-2009

Wal-Mart Rolls Out Steep Holiday Price Cuts

NPD Group Spending Intention Survey

Hay Group survey finds retailers brace for cold sales and hiring this holiday season

COUPON TIME

If you want to know what Black Friday promotions your favorite store is offering, there’s no need to look too far!  Just check our Black Friday Sales page for the latest deals.

You could have signed the Declaration of Independence in that dining room.

For our family of four (at the time), it was nothing short of excessive.  After all, we had a dining-room table that would seat six uncomfortably.  That would have taken up about a quarter of the space in that room.  What was I going to do with the rest of it–let the kids roller-skate in there?  (If I didn’t fill all that room with a concert grand piano or something, you know the kids would wind up using it as a roller rink.)

It wasn’t just the dining room that made us decide not to buy that house.  For many reasons, it wasn’t the right one for us.  So when we have a large family dinner, we take the coffee table out of the living room and bring in a long folding table.  I put a tablecloth on it so you feel like you’re there for a nice meal, not to play Bingo.  We’re just not the formal type, but we hope our hospitality and a good meal will make our guests forget that they’re eating at a folding table.

COUPON TIME

Are you all set with enough tables and chairs for your Thanksgiving guests?

$50 off orders over $500 at Design Within Reach
Use Promotional Code SFSALE in your shopping cart.
Valid through: November 18, 2009
Offer is nontransferable, cannot be combined with any other offers, and cannot be applied to past purchases. Not valid on the purchase of gift certificates, and items cannot be held for future delivery.
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Free shipping on orders of $100 or more at Domestications
Enter Promotion Code D9KAFFFS in your shopping cart.
Offer ends: November 30, 2009 11:59pm ET
Valid on orders $100 or more. Free regular delivery on in-stock merchandise only, a $14.99 minimum value, at www.domestications.com only. The $1.95 service charge is additional. One time use only. Offer applicable towards new orders delivered in the continental US only. For residents of Puerto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii, and US Territories, this offer does not include the additional $40.00 fee. Sorry, this offer cannot be combined with other promotions or club discounts (except the Domestications Buyer’s Club) and does not apply to items shipped directly from the manufacturer, express, heavyweight, or additional address charges.
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And if you’re still planning for Thanksgiving, don’t miss our Thanksgiving Deals section!