Nov 27, 2009 11:00 pm US/Eastern
3 On Your Side: Perks When Shopping
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Did you hit the malls early Friday, or do you plan on doing most of your shopping online from the comfort of your home? As Your Money Team helps you to Survive in '09, 3-On Your Side's Jim Donovan finds either way, retailers are offering perks to get you to spend.
These days shoppers aren't just buying gift cards, they're getting them for free as retailers offer them as an incentive to spend even more. For example if you spend $100 at Bloomingdales, you'll get back $15 in the form of a Bloomies gift card. Spend $200 there and you'll get a 30$ gift card.
If you shell out $100 for cosmetics or fragrances at Saks, they'll give you a $25 gift card as bonus. Even when you buy an iPod Touch at Toys R Us, you'll receive a $50 gift card.
Shoppers like Katie Thomason say they're seeing gift cards offered everywhere. Thomason says, "Target got a gift card if you spent so much, and Gymboree you got Gymbucks which is the same thing."
Stores are keeping their inventories super lean this year and empty shelves could drive more shoppers than ever to the cyber mall.
Shopper Harry Hannah says, "You can get more of exactly what you are looking for."
An estimated 69 million people are expected to shop this coming Monday for holiday gifts from their workplace. It's known as Cyber Monday. If you're one of them, then be sure to search for discount promotional codes.
Kelli Grant of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute says, "Go to Google and type in the store name that you're looking for and "coupon code." You'll come up with lists and lists of sites.
Retailmenot is one of my favorites. There's also Couponcabin.com and Couponmountain.com."
Right now typing in "Turkey 15" online at Kohl's gets you 15 percent off. Punch in GIVTHANKS at Eddie Bauer and get free shipping. You're probably not going to be successful finding an active promotional code for every store, but it's still worth trying.
By the way, who are those folks that shop from work on Cyber Monday? A recent survey finds they're mostly young adults ages 18-24, and more likely to be men than women.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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