budget wise
Obviously you would want to buy more personal and thoughtful gifts for the people closer to you. But for more generic gifts, I suggest pack shopping, which is just like pack hunting,wholesale iphone 5, only nicer.
Pack shopping here means gathering a couple of friends with similar shopping lists and then buying in bulk to take advantage of economies of scale. I usually pack shop with two other people when it comes to generic gifts. You will find that you can get really nice gifts like wine glasses at really great prices when you pack shop,Head of Marketing at Interna.
Why Shop Earlier
It seems every year people start shopping earlier and earlier for Christmas. Last year I started at the beginning of October and had all the presents wrapped by the end of the month. This year I started even sooner to take advantage of a few outlets offering mid year sales.
In a call with analysts, executives explained that the storm had caused some disruption to the supply chain,and have something for everyone, including delays in getting merchandise into stores, and that Saks would extend a sales event by a few days, compromising its gross profit in the current quarter.
Moving up Christmas shopping a few months takes a little adjustment, budget wise,event catering, particularly during the first year of the timetable change. But it does not take much to get used to it. Its just a matter of keeping to a set schedule of putting a little money aside for presents.
Shopping earlier has two main advantages - getting better deals and avoiding the holiday rush. But it has its disadvantages too. Many toy and game producers especially, only release their latest products very close to the holidays. This means that if you are going to shop in the middle of the year, you will not be able to get the latest items on the market. One way to get around this is to pre-order. In fact pre-ordering products might even fetch you discounts and free gifts.
But in many cases, if you keep your eyes open, you can get better deals during the slow or off season, retail wise. Many mobile phone producers release their latest models during the middle of the year. This means that previous models will be going at rock bottom prices about two months before the launch of the replacement.
The Gift Conundrum
The operator of Saks Fifth Avenue and Off Fifth department stores said it expects sales at stores open at least a year to be flat during the current holiday quarter because of a slow start to November due to Superstorm Sandy.
Despite the weaker sales, Chief Executive Steve Sadove reassured analysts that the company was already recovering from the storm even though sales were still depressed two weeks later. "You're not going to see a long-term effect from the hurricane," Sadove said. In the same vein, he added that it expects sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, to be flat because of Sandy. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Saks expects comparable store sales to be relatively flat compared to last year.
Some people take shopping earlier to the extreme but shopping right after the holidays for the next holidays. Post holiday sales are sometimes even better than pre-holiday sales as departmental stores try to clear excess stock by offering ridiculous discounts.
Needful Adjustments
Aside from making purchases during sales, buying in bulk can save you lots of cash. Its always good to break recipients into a few groups first - close family, family, close friends, friends, colleagues - you get the idea. Doing so allows you to organize your buying better. That said I only have two recipient groups - immediate family and others.