This fight has been a long time coming and today we’re getting down to the nitty gritty of shopping. Just where do we find better discounts? This is a fight based solely on discounts, not variety. What are shops doing to keep you coming through the door? What are online retailers doing to keep themselves as the first result for their specialty items? All this and more. Let’s rock.
Finding Deep Discounts at Physical Stores
There’s a reason that brick and mortar stores are dying out, and it’s because they can’t compete with online retailers. Or can they? Over the past few years we’ve seen a strong comeback from several big name chains that have figured out how to compete. We’ve even seen a resurrection unlike any other in the soon-to-be returning Circuit City, that collapsed almost a decade ago.
So how do you find the really good discounts? Strangely enough, you look at their websites. I know, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but the marketing works!
You see, most of their sites offer free pick up in store (sometimes with savings incentives) these days. That section is just ever so conveniently situated at the back of the store at most retailers participating. And you know what you do when you walk through the whole store? You pick up things. You remember that you need toothpaste. You see the cutest little dog on a card and know just who to send it to.
And that’s when you fall for what’s keeping the brick and mortar business alive.
The Online Exclusives
As we stated earlier, the internet will probably always win the variety award. It’s hard to compete with a single warehouse vs multiple shipping warehouses and endless off-site inventories.
That means that the online retailers can offer some discounts on things that the brick and mortar stores may not have access to, or deeper discounts on ones that they do. Online retailers simply do not have the overhead costs that brick and mortar stores have, thus allowing them to do fire sales, flash sales, and ridiculously deep discount coupon codes at the drop of a hat when they see their sales are falling.
We suggest waiting until the middle of the week or the end of the month to snag the best offers from online retailers across the board.
Who’s Going To Win?
Ask us this ten years ago and we’d have said that everyone would be buying everything online in 2018. Instead, we still have a quick stop at the corner store on the way home for a soda or a bag of chips.
So who’s going to win? Whoever figures out the fastest way to get us the best deals in the most convenient way. Amazon’s same-day delivery service is putting a damper on the convenience of going and grabbing something at the store, but until it rolls out nationwide we’ll always have reason to go to Target at 2 am when somebody has a fever.