Features
Imprint, Friday, March 27, 2009
13
Buying on the internet Where everything is for sale
Langar day at UW
imerrow@imprint.uwaterloo.ca
W
hile shopping, it’s part of our natural instinct to look for the best bargain available; from very early on in life we are rewarded for pointing out sales and taking advantage of deals. Across all societies, the art of the bargain hunt is as old as the practice of commerce itself, but our ability to find the lowest price has always been limited by our access to what’s out there. Today, the internet has nearly obliterated that barrier. We can now access a verisimilitude of deals we never even knew existed in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take. What strategies can maximize your online shopping effectiveness? What websites and tools can do all the work for you? Reading this article will be the last time you need to spend more than ten minutes to save a buck. Searching for an e-sale
Tapping into the power of the internet search engines is crucial; however this goes beyond typing “cheap iPods” into Google and clicking “I’m Feeling Lucky.” One small step away from google.com is Google Product Search (formerly Froogle), an extremely fast search engine you can use to find sales and compare prices. Although still in development, this is a solid search mechanism that quickly ranks products in terms of their current price from a variety of online vendors. Online tools like Google Product Search are known as “ShopBots,” because they shop for you like a robot would. For a second opinion, try EDealInfo.com, Shopping.com, or PriceGrabber.ca. Keep in mind that some big box stores have a lowest price guarantee, so if you print out a legitimate internet deal and bring it in, they may match the lower price — as long as you don’t forget to add in the cost of shipping. What if you’ve already found what you want online, but are waiting for the price to go down even more? Instead of hitting the refresh button every few days on that persistant Firefox tab, try out PriceProtectr.com. All you have to do is type in the URL of the product web-page you are eyeing, and PriceProtectr will notify you when it goes on sale. Alternatively, if you’ve just bought an item and the price goes down, you will receive an email notifying you of the price change. Most large retailers will then compensate you for the difference in price if you let them know what happened. If you’re curious to know more, PriceProtectr provides a list of its retailers and their price protection policies on its website. This service’s only limit is in its selection of retailers, but with names like Tiger Direct Canada, Walmart, Amazon Canada, among others, it is definitely worth a look. Another ShopBot called DealScans.com performs a similar function as PriceProtectr’s price search, but as far as I can tell DealScans tends to find mostly American promotions. For a more Canadian perspective of things on sale, you have to visit Red-
FlagDeals.com. This site is coupons, promotions, and free stuff galore, mostly submitted by people trying to save money just like you. If cash back is what you’re after, try Ebates.com, a website that provides you a 1 to 25 per cent rebate on your purchases at 900 select stores online (Aeropostale or Apple iTunes for example). That means that the more money you spend at their partners’ stores, the more cash you get back. If this encourages you to spend more than you would otherwise, this is not “saving” in the strict sense of the word, but for purchases you’d make anyway, it’s not a bad idea. Alternatives to buying new
Probably the oldest trick in the book is buying something used to get a good deal. Migrate this principle onto the internet, and you have virtual garage sales at your fingertips. Although potentially more time-consuming than letting your ShopBot do all the work, browsing through your own shopping sites can still yield big results. eBay might be old news for the young folks, but it’s still a gem, and always worth considering in the search for more stuff. Often you’ll find the average ShopBot routes you to eBay anyway, so why not start at the source? If you want the thrill of eBay, but only for the stuff that’s 50 per cent off or more, you can try Half.com, an eBay subsidiary that is just that. Although just as unlikely to be considered news, Craigslist.ca and Kijiji.ca deserve to be mentioned and searched for deals, because they are essentially giant online databases of the deals you might have found in the “classified” section of your average newspaper 20 years ago. You want it for free
Okay, so either you take saving money super seriously, or you have no money, but either way you need stuff for free. Believe it or not, there are some sites online that can help you out, but beware flashy promos that are really just spam monsters in disguise. TheFreeSite.com is an interesting compilation of random free things, although I’ll be honest, I’m not surprised any of their stuff is for free. A more promising site is called FreeCycle.org, a recycling based organization for communities that want to offer up things they no longer use to avoid sending them to landfills. The Toronto community has quite a few members, so I suggest you try it out. RedFlagDeals. com also has a “freebie” section that isn’t bad, but beware of less reputable sites that have sketchy-sounding deals. Just think: would you take advantage of the same deal from a guy off the street? The disclaimer
I have to say it. If you’re looking to save money, shopping (whether analog or online) is probably not the best way to do it. Even the greatest deals are not as good as money in the bank, so if you have some cash,
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try to avoid spending it first. That being said, to shop online safely, it’s important to read up on what exactly makes a website “safe.” For a good run-down of internet shopping safety tips, check out a variety of sources like SafeShopping.org. After all, the old adage that it’s “too good to be true” often applies to sales, because some promotions can be misleading or even fraudulent. Before using an internet tool or shopping site, search the site’s name for any stories of people being ripped off, and always pay with a credit card. Why credit cards? Well, a handy feature of most credit cards is “limited liability,” meaning that if a rogue website uses your card for fraud, you won’t be charged for it. Also, another “must” for safe e-shopping is the creation of a separate email account for the mountains of spam you’ll receive for signing up for random internet freebies. If you don’t protect yourself, prepare to be spammed. Through the pop-ups and distraction of the internet, if you come out on top with the best price available, that’s all that matters. Hopefully this has inspired you to take advantage of some shopping tools you haven’t tried before – just don’t forget to ask if shipping and handling is included; it will cost you.
mark zammit
Paulman Chan (left) and Harsimaran Singh engage in deep theological discussion as people mill about, eating and sharing in the experience that was Langar Day, March 16, 2009. This event was held in the SLC Multipurpose Room, and hosted by the UW Sikh Students Association, and was open to all students and passers-by.