Any sales hound knows that the best sales you can find are typically fire sales. However, flash sales usually come pretty close to those low, low prices and are quite a bit more frequent. We’re going to examine how to make the best of both worlds. Let’s get started.
Finding These Sales
Fire sales are rarely advertised before the sale actually starts. One of the best examples is one that happened seven years ago as of the writing of this article. The HP Touchpad was suddenly reduced hundreds of dollars, with both models going for far less than they were worth, at almost every store and online retailer that carried them.
And most retailers were sold out within 24 hours, with no stock ever to come again. Your best bet with these is to keep your ear to the ground with sites like SlickDeals and hope that you find out about it in time.
Flash sales are a bit easier to find, track and predict. Take Burpee for example. Burpee offers a certain percentage off seeds and plants, based on their yearly data concerning interest for those certain pieces of merchandise. These sales are often but they only last for about 4-5 hours.
The Difference
The biggest difference between flash sales and fire sales are that fire sales are usually treated the same way clearance is treated. That means if you run a serious risk of getting a broken or defective object. We’ll cover what happens with that in the next section, but it’s definitely something to consider.
Flash sales are often just a way to get attention. The fire sale is to permanently sweep the shelves of a store or get rid of a particular product. They want it gone. It’s possible that they may even barter in some situations, like with stores closing entirely and liquidating their inventory. Flash sales are just there to try to get you to spend a little more than you normally would, or to remind you that the store is there and that they want your money too.
What Happens If You Receive Broken Merchandise?
Usually the policy with fire sales is return to manufacturer only. That means you have to hope that the manufacturer will honor their warranty, even if they may be going out of business. Flash sales should operate as any normal sale, but before you hit that checkout button make sure you read the fine print just to be sure.