The day after Christmas is a day of relief for many people, and I’m one of those people. The gifts have been opened and the reactions have been mentally recorded. The anxiety of shopping for the last minute Christmas gifts finally fades away. The memories of the days leading up to Christmas have all but faded away already. Once you realize there’s no other rush-like shopping to do until the next major holiday is around the corner, it’s time to think about how to take advantage of the situation.
The After-Christmas Sales
More than anything, this is a reminder to find out if something you want is on sale right now. The stores overstocked for Christmas shopping and I guarantee you that a lot of them have excess inventory to get rid of. I don’t know which ones are having the after-Christmas sales, but I’m sure I could find out in short order.
The online retailers, which don’t have brick and mortar counterparts, aren’t likely to be having this kind of sale going on unless they’re just trying to take advantage of what those brick and mortar stores are doing. On the other hand, it’s likely that those which do will have a sale at their online stores to coincide with the real world stores.
Price Comparisons
This is where you have to be careful. There are a few unscrupulous retailers that will inflate the original prices, listing a sale price next to those prices, and the sale price is actually the normal price. It’s a good idea to have an idea of what the normal price ranges for certain products are during the non-holiday periods.
If you’re lucky, you can save some extra money on refurbished products and product returns. In fact, the product returns will probably have the best values attached to their prices. Repackaging returns is time-consuming if it’s even done. The big stores wouldn’t suffer much by not selling off this inventory while the small stores would benefit tremendously.
Peace and Tranquility
The days in the Philippines leading up to Christmas are filled with unwanted noise and people looking for handouts by preying on generous holiday spirits, along with everything else. The period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve stays relatively quiet and calm compared to those two days and the week preceding Christmas.
Unlike the retail counterparts here to those in the US, it’s unlikely there are any after-Christmas sales at all (except maybe in metro Manila) and I am unwilling to travel around to find out. Also unlike the US retail counterparts, they don’t advertise sales on television very often. To find a sale taking place, I would have to literally travel to the areas where all the stores are and that’s just too much traveling for me.
No, instead of causing more headaches for myself, I always look forward to a few days of peace and tranquility – the calm before the storm, so to speak.
[Originally published in December, 2010]
Hey RT:
Great post!
Kristine and I are going Christmas shopping today — as a matter of the fact! lol
We actually decided to hold-off on exchanging gifts, and in turn are going shopping for each other today: Probably JCPenny, Kohl’s Department Store, and perhaps a sporting goods store to get me a fishing pole for the upcoming Walleye season! We contemplated some online shopping venues, but like you noted there are unlikely to be any significant shopping savings at an online store.
Hope you had a great Christmas and an upcoming New Year as well!!!
~Scott
Thanks! Christmas Day was unusual and that’s about all I’ll say about it, but it wasn’t a bad day at all. I sincerely hope 2011 turns out better than 2010, but we won’t know for another year!
It’s good to see another perspective on Philippine life from the western side of the world. I wonder sometimes if the same things stand out for other westerners as they do for me. It seemed, and continues to seem, so strange to me not to see the “great deals” that happen after Christmas.
As a tech I used to especially enjoy running down to Radio Shack or going to dealnews.com to find what techie things that I could pick up that I’ve always wanted but never realized before :-)
So yup, no half-price sales here in the Philippines. But if you a scrupulous shopper you can avoid buying the “trash” items, pirated items, or the otherwise undesirable knock-offs and get a really good deal on things here in the Philippines at any time of the year. But really we have to be cautious when trying to do so here in the Phils.
I had a great Christmas week and it will be memorable forever.I prefer to go and purchase my stuff rather than purchasing online.My bro had got some good shopping vouchers for me and i have saved some bucks.Thanks for sharing this post.