Tag: shop local

Last Minute Shopping Hacks

by Advantage One, posted in Announcements, Budgeting, Convenience, Lifestyle, Saving, Tips & Best Practices, Uncategorized

Retailers and suppliers have been urging consumers to shop early this holiday season, but that doesn’t mean everyone has been paying attention. If you’ve pushed off their shopping until the last minute, we’ve got you covered! Here are six ways to keep your last-minute shopping stress-free and inexpensive. 

  1. Order online and pick up in-store

Don’t sweat over delayed shipping or the impossibly long lines in stores before the holidays. Instead, order what you need online and arrange to pick it up in the store. Most retailers offer this option now, and choosing it will give you the best of both worlds. You can browse from the comfort of your home, and pick up what you need (provided they still have it in stock) in no time at all, usually on the same day or within 24 hours. As an added bonus, many stores have designated parking spaces for shoppers who are picking up these types of orders.

  1. Get stocking stuffers at the dollar store

The dollar store is your best friend when it comes to last-minute stocking stuffers for your family. Browse carefully for fun finds, from activity books and sticker packs for the little ones, to scented candles and funky-colored nail polish for your tweens and teens, to fuzzy slippers and socks for your better half. Best of all, no one has to know they came from the dollar store!

  1. Send a gift card through Giftly

Gift cards are the best cheat for the overwhelmed shopper, but they can also be a tad impersonal when you want to show you really care. Take the easy way out and keep the personal touch in your gift-giving by purchasing a gift card through Giftly. Here’s how it works: You suggest a gift item for your recipient, like “spa day” or “new electronic gadget” and then select a place where they can choose the gift. Or, you can leave it open for your friend to decide. You can send your “gift” via email, text message or even deliver it in person. Add a customized message, and the recipient can use the electronic gift card at your chosen place, or, if you’ve left it open, wherever Visa gift cards are accepted. Gift-giving, done!

  1. Shop on Dec. 14 for free shipping

What’s not to love about Free Shipping Day? Save your last-minute online shopping for this day in mid-December to save on shipping costs. Unless you’re purchasing items from overseas, most retailers will still be able to get your items delivered in time for the holidays.

  1. Shop small businesses

Avoid the heavy crowds and empty shelves by shopping at smaller, independently owned stores. They’re likely to be better stocked, even this late in the season, and you can enjoy more personalized service, too. In addition, small businesses are still hurting from the coronavirus lockdown and more recently, from the spike in inflation. Shopping at local mom-and-pop stores will be helping a struggling business stay afloat during a time of year when kindness counts most. 

  1. Shop during non-peak hours

Another way to avoid the big crowds and bare shelves is to shop during slower business hours. In retail-speak, this means hitting the shops as soon as they open in the morning. The shelves in most stores are restocked overnight, and if you get there before the crowds, you’ll get first picks at the best gifts. Aside from a bigger selection, shopping in an emptier store will make it easier to make responsible, budget-conscious decisions. 

Leaving some or all of your holiday gift-shopping for the last minute doesn’t mean you need to blow your budget, fight big crowds, or try to make your list work when you’re facing empty shelves. Use the tips outlined above for last-minute shopping that’s easy on the wallet, light on the stress, and makes it possible to find the perfect gifts. 

Your Turn: How do you make last-minute shopping a stress-free and inexpensive experience? Share your hacks with us in the comments. 

5 Ways to Help Local Small Businesses Survive the Coronavirus Crisis

by Advantage One, posted in Lifestyle

Man eating a casual lunch while watching TVShop your local stores online
Most retailers are offering their products through online purchasing, even if they hadn’t been doing so before the coronavirus pandemic. Continue supporting local businesses by choosing to order through their websites until they reopen their brick-and-mortar locations.

Buy gift cards
Service businesses like spas and theaters that don’t sell products, are hit particularly hard by the coronavirus shutdowns. Help them continue to turn a profit by purchasing gift cards now for later use.

Order in
Dining out is a luxury that most of the world will have to do without for now, but you can still enjoy your favorite takeout food at home. Most restaurants and fast-food chains are taking precautions to prepare their food within hygienic conditions to meet the CDC guidelines. You can safely order through a food delivery service, like UberEats or Postmates, or use the restaurant’s drive-thru or curbside pickup service.

Tip extra
Whether you’re ordering dinner in or just having your groceries delivered because you can’t leave your home, you can help local businesses make it through this economic crisis by tipping a little bit more than you normally would. You can usually add your tip to the total being charged on your card to avoid physical contact with the delivery person.

Take advantage of discounts
In an effort to boost their sales, many small businesses are offering steep discounts on their products at this time. Take advantage by purchasing larger than normal quantities of the sale items to help the business stay afloat.

Will Amazon Go Destroy The Face Of American Retail?

by Advantage One, posted in Lifestyle, Tips & Best Practices

Amazon Go logoYou’ve picked up your last item, and you’re ready to check out. But if you thought choosing the right blend of K-cups was a tough decision, that’s nothing compared to the choice you’ll have to make now. Do you go to the aisle with the most carts that has the fastest cashier? Do you take your chances behind the mom with the screaming baby and whiny toddler? Can you squeeze into the “20 Items or Less” aisle (even though you may be one or two items over)?

Tough decisions, indeed.

That moment of tension might soon go the way of the 8-track and cassette.

On Jan. 22, amid much excitement and media attention, Amazon threw open the doors of its revolutionary cashierless store to the public.

Using sophisticated cameras and a simple phone scan, the store allows shoppers to walk in, pick up what they want, and walk out. No lines. No cashiers. No bagging. No fuss.

Sounds incredible?

While the quick-in and quick-out appeal might be super-convenient, like all advancements in technology, it comes with a price.

Here’s a quick look at why Amazon Go may not be the best thing since sliced bread, and a deeper look at how it may affect the economy.

1.) Super techy or super creepy?
As our lives become more digitized, true privacy is becoming a rare commodity. Your online browsing activity is already tracked and monitored. The purchases you make on the internet are duly recorded. And, if you step into Amazon Go, the giant e-tailer will also know if you prefer Oreos to Chips Ahoy.

Amazon didn’t provide many details about its tracking system, but the company claims the hundreds of cameras in its new store are not that different from everyday security cameras. The cameras track the shoppers’ movements as they walk through the store, sensing which products they pick up or put down. There are also weight sensors installed in every shelf to help the computers recognize when an item has been grabbed.
Sounds like a store from the future? Maybe. But do you really want to give the commerce giant more knowledge about your personal preferences and shopping habits than it already has?

This isn’t “Big Brother is watching.” It’s more like “Thanks for shopping with Big Brother.”

2.) Less impulse control
The longer we have to think about something, the more of a fighting chance we have of making the right decision.

With Amazon Go’s speedy shopping experience, there’s no more dawdling over items while waiting your turn at the checkout. This means if you’ve got something in your bag that you know shouldn’t be there, it’s going to be that much harder to put it back.

To make it even worse, Manoj Thomas, professor of marketing at Cornell University, says that when people use any abstract form of payment, they tend to spend more. You can’t get much more abstract than a cashless and cashierless store. Amazon Go might be the perfect place for overspending on impulse purchases.

3.) Loss of the human touch
There are few commercial interactions as intimate as the one you share with the cashier in your local grocery – there’s that shared laugh over the extra chocolate bar, the brief commiseration over the miserable weather or the clucking over the rising price of gas. With Amazon Go, that human touch may soon be gone forever.

While these reasons might be enough to convince you to skip the trip to Amazon Go if you live in Seattle, it gets a whole lot worse. Amazon has not shared any plans of rolling out more cashless stores for the time being, but financial analysts predict it won’t be long before more such stores crop up around the country. It’s also likely that other retail giants, like Walmart or Target, will soon open their own brands of Amazon Go.

If the cashierless trend swells, it may dramatically erode the second-most-common job in the country; according to federal data, there are currently 3.5 million Americans who work as cashiers.

It’s not just groceries that will be impacted if the movement continues to grow.

Amazon has boasted that it plans to create an additional 100,000 jobs each year, but what Jeff Bezos won’t say out loud is that for every Amazon job created, another 2 or 3 jobs are lost.

Amazon has already revolutionized the way Americans shop, and online purchases have been outnumbering brick-and-mortar purchases for a while – and half of those are made through Amazon. But this new trend is taking things to an entirely new level.

What’s next? Cashierless clothing boutiques? “Just Walk Out” electronic stores? Tens of thousands of retail workers have already sacrificed their jobs to online convenience. Will that number soon triple?

You can’t stop technology from advancing. In fact, you might even embrace it. But, you can do your part to keep a vital part of our country’s economy thriving.
Here’s how:

  • Support your local small businesses. Shop the mom-and-pop stores when you can and keep the human touch in your life.
  • Order less online. It might be more convenient to do your shopping from your living room couch, but why not help keep a local community member in business instead?
  • Choose American made. You will definitely need to order some things online now and then. When you do, check that the seller and manufacturer live in the good old United States and do your part to keep our economy booming.

Amazon Go may be super-cool and futuristic, but the toll it may take on our economy is worth a second look.

Your Turn:
If an Amazon Go store opened in your neighborhood, would you shop there? Why?

SOURCES:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1071105001
https://www.google.com/amp/www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-cashless-shopping-future-0125-story,amp.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/business/wp/2018/01/22/inside-amazon-go-the-camera-filled-convenience-store-that-watches-you-back/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/3DEAB5E4-DBFB-11E6-84DD-F488D3AD0F91