Feh, working all day sux. But, I'm curious: are you getting more emails than ever, from corporate concerns, begging you to click the link and check out "savings like never before!" at this or that business website? It's sort of annoying to have to sift thru a lot of "you told us it was OK to email you" spam, as you're trying to get work done, yo?
I don't do a lot of online shopping, compared to your average American consumer. But obviously it's impossible to keep an email addy "private," and once one has used an addy, it gets whored around with the same promiscuity of a desperate blogger looking to generate new traffic at a new site. But it's notable, at least to me and anectodally, to consider how many "Sale of the Century!" emails I'm getting right now, and even from business concerns I've not had relations with for years.
The saddest/funniest ones are from the garden-related businesses, who don't seem to realize that I'm a few thousand away, in terms of savings, from having the self-heating eco-correct greenhaus that would make me more inclined to want to buy plants and gardening supplies in the early dead of winter. I suspect that, economically speaking, it's going to be even more Cold, come February.
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The 'deals' are much more complicated this year
than past years. I only allow a few retailers to share my email, but I'm getting bombarded even more badly than usual.
The big change I've noticed this year is that there are very few straight up deals -- not many $200 laptops, or $500 gigundus screen TVs, but lots of 'Buy X and get a free Y' or 'Buy 3 Xs and get a 4th X free' type ads, or coupons or gift cards for your next purchase. If you're the primary Xmas shopper for your family (which I am thankfully not), it's a whole lot more shopping list management time involved, as well as more semi-forced shopping with one store.
Merchandisers (online and off) have always relied on their big-deal loss leaders to get people into stores, but this year I think they're imagining (probably correctly) that most people are even more likely to just stop by for the loss leaders and then run off somewhere else for other purchases; the complex deals might keep people at one place for longer (if for no other reason than standing around trying to work out whether you're inventory already includes sufficient first-level purchases to earn you the discounted second-level ones). All I know, is even just checking my email for deals on stuff I was planning on buying anyway is exhausting.
Random citizen journalism: my workplace is in a normally prosperous and rather upscale section of Cambridge; 3 stores in the 2 blocks opposite my building have gone out of business, and 2 are moving to less expensive locations All since around Labor Day. A colleague today was observing that even all the various eateries (upscale and down) are looking very deserted at lunchtime.
Er, not quite what you asked, but needed to vent a bit.
You don’t know me, son. So let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake, you’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.
-Malcolm Reynolds, “Serenity”
My opinion on the complex deals
Is that retailers are trying to clear out inventory, esp as the fiscal year ends.
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
- Sir William Drummond