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When you’re shopping on Amazon this holiday season, you can easily be fooled into thinking that everything you buy on the website is a great deal.
After all, many items have a red line through one price and a lower price with the percentage savings listed below it.
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However, money expert Clark Howard says you shouldn’t believe when Amazon or any other retailer tells you that you’re getting 25%, 50% or 75% off.
Think about it: How often do you really pay the full price for items on Amazon? There’s always a “sale.”
Retailers know that many shoppers just can’t resist buying merchandise that’s marked down, but a sale tag doesn’t necessarily mean the item is a true deal.
“Amazon has a bad habit of putting things on sale Thanksgiving week that are non-sale sales. They’ll advertise items on their website as being massive discounts that really aren’t at all,” Clark said on the radio show. “Even if you’re really addicted to Amazon, I encourage you during Thanksgiving week to comparison shop what Amazon is pitching to see if it’s really a deal or a non-deal deal.”
According to Amazon’s website, the “List Price” is the suggested retail price of a product provided by a manufacturer, supplier or seller.
“We regularly check List Prices against prices recently found on Amazon.com and other retailers,” Amazon said.
In addition, the e-commerce giant said certain products may have a “Was Price” displayed, which is determined using recent price history of the product on Amazon.com.
This is where things get confusing for shoppers. I searched for a TV on Amazon and found one from TCL (model 55S405) on sale for $399.99. It had a list price of $599.99, a savings of $200 or 33%.
Meanwhile, Target had the TV on sale for the same price, but the MSRP was $549.99 — a savings of $150 or 27%.
At the end of the day, you’d be getting the TV for $399.99 either way, but Amazon’s higher list price could motivate some shoppers to buy without searching around because 33% off seems like such a bargain.
The key takeaway from Clark is to only pay attention to the final price because that’s all that matters anyway.
To make sure that you’re getting a great deal on Amazon, always check prices elsewhere. For the TV, I just plugged the model number into Google.com/Shopping to see prices from other retailers.
By the way, Amazon tied with several other stores for the lowest price on that TV. Here are the results:
If you’re trying to save money this holiday season, Clark says there will be a spike in deals around Black Friday, but the sales are being spread out and will continue until around December 10.
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This post was last modified on November 11, 2017 7:16 am
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