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do one thing: Check out three websites before you buy: CamelCamelCamel, Keepa, and Google. (Okay, that’s more than one thing.)
is bigger than you You may believe that you are not fooled by marketing gimmicks and holiday shopping guilt. But we all do. It’s okay.
Feel good about: Stores are unusually nervous this year about being left with unsold merchandise. Retailers’ anxiety may be their gain.
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Technology can be your friend or foe as you march through the holiday shopping minefield.
The internet is screaming BUY THIS NOW or LAST CHANCE. The desire for a good business or to make people happy can make you buy nonsense. You could spend endless hours researching online to cut every dollar out of your gift budget.
Or you can still save money, time, and sanity with these manageable tech tactics:
Check out three price comparison sites.
CamelCamelCamel and Keepa are free websites that show you the typical prices paid for a product on Amazon. Whether you’re shopping on Amazon or elsewhere, a quick search can help you feel confident you’re paying a reasonable price. These sites are a bit confusing to use, but they are worth checking out.
(Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns Mademoiselleosaki.)
I typed “Wingspan Board Game” into the CamelCamelCamel search box and scrolled down to “Amazon Price History.” Those crazy up and down lines showed that the strategy game briefly sold on Amazon for under $40 this summer, but the game generally sold for more than the current price of $47. You can feel pretty good about buying now.
Keepa works similarly with product searches, and you can also download software that will allow you to view price history when you’re searching Amazon’s website on a computer. This way, you don’t have to remember to search the Keepa website.
Here is the software for Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Microsoft web browsers. Since too many companies have betrayed your trust with web browser plug-ins, it might be worth removing this software once you are done searching for a specific product.
One downside to both of these websites is that they push you to buy from Amazon, which might not be in your best interest. Read my colleague Geoffrey Fowler’s column on how an excess of ads has made shopping on Amazon a nightmare.
Google also has more comprehensive, if problematic, price comparisons when you search for some products.
Below you will find the results of a Google search I did for the same game Wingspan from Stonemaier Games. The material on the right hand side comes from Google computers comparing prices in different online and offline stores. (Those images and prices at the top are ads that stores buy from Google. I would recommend ignoring them.)
These Google price comparisons won’t show up all the time. It won’t help if you search for a generic term like “flare jeans,” for example. And boy, are we not excited over here with Google turning your search results page into a turkey chock full of ads and information provided by Google. But honestly, this is useful.
None of these websites are foolproof and they tend to ignore smaller stores or manufacturers. But all three are still worth trying when you have something in mind and are willing to shop around.
Try the manufacturer’s website.
Many companies like Nike and Lenovo beg you to buy their products directly from them and not from a store where they have to split your money with Amazon, Best Buy or Foot Locker. Their desperation can work to your advantage because many companies offer deals if you buy on their websites, apps, or email deals.
For example, a Cleopatra doll from toy company LOL Surprise was selling for about the same price, $99, at Amazon and Walmart when I checked on Monday. But you could have bought the toy on the LOL Surprise website for $90 after a 10 percent off coupon for new customers. LOL Surprise was also throwing in a giveaway.
There are drawbacks to buying from the company that makes the product. If you’re buying a lot of things, it might be easier to order from a store that sells everything. You also may not trust a smaller company to ship orders at no extra cost or to contact you in time for holiday gifts.
And you may have to give them your email address to get discounts, which means they will hound you forever. (I have a tip for that below.)
Boring but effective: Make a list.
None of those tactics will help you decide what, if anything, to buy. I am sorry! That’s the hard part.
Caroline Moss, who runs the podcast and online community “Wow, thanks, I just bought it!” She told me that the best thing to do when you go Christmas shopping is to plan ahead what you want to buy. Wandering the Internet looking for gift inspiration will waste time and money.
“Shopping online is like standing in line at the grocery store looking at impulse candy,” Moss told me. “You’ll just grab anything.”
Know your limits as a buyer
This shopping advice for you is not exhaustive, and that’s on purpose.
If you like advanced product research, price watch alerts, and coupon hunting, go for it! The Moss online community created an elaborate spreadsheet of discount codes and sales for products they love. My colleague Jackie Peiser posted a holiday shopping survival guide that has more tips on cash back rewards websites and other money savings.
But know that you don’t have to go all out to streamline your holiday shopping if that seems like too much work. Also try to resist the urge to judge yourself or others for buying too much or doing the wrong holiday shopping. We are all imperfect humans.
“This is a time of year when you can convince yourself through savvy marketing and incredible sales and deals that you need anything,” Moss said. “It sounds easy to say don’t buy things you don’t need, but it’s much harder to put it into practice.”
➦My colleague Heather Kelly has great tips on how to figure out when online shopping links are leading you to junk or scams.
➦Why are email gimmicks promising free Yeti coolers or other expensive products increasingly flooding your inbox? (Vox, Sara Morrison)
What you need to know about Elon Musk’s beef with Apple
Musk, even in a series of tweets on Monday, has three complaints about Apple:
*Apple mostly stopped paying to promote itself on Twitter, Musk said.
* Musk said Apple threatened to make the Twitter app unavailable for new downloads.
*Musk has previously complained about the fees Apple will charge anyone who pays for Twitter services, such as a verified account.
Musk’s tweets aren’t always reliable. Apple hasn’t said anything official in response. And it’s unlikely that Apple will remove Twitter from its app store.
But this is a useful moment to remind you that Apple and Google are dictators of what you can do on your phone. Companies are not ashamed of having this power and make it clear that their app stores are not zones of absolute freedom of expression.
Only Apple and Google decide which apps are available for download on their official iPhone and Android stores. When you buy something digital like an e-book, virtual weapons for a video game app, or a subscription to Mademoiselleosaki, you’re likely buying from Apple and Google, not the companies that sell those products. Apple and Google keep a portion of what you pay for Twitter or other digital goods.
There are ways in which Apple’s and Google’s near-absolute power over apps hurts you, and ways in which you benefit.
Basically, Apple and Google make sure that any app you download doesn’t try to steal your money or personal information. (In practice, its protections are not foolproof.) It can help to find apps in a central place like the Google Play store and use the payment information you’ve already saved with Apple to buy a Disney+ subscription in the app.
But there are plenty of tech bosses like Musk who hate controlling Apple and Google, for their benefit and theirs.
Epic Games, which makes the “Fortnite” video game, sued Apple to force the company to allow people to use apps without Apple’s involvement. That case is making its way through the courts. Regulators in the European Union, South Korea and other parts of the world have tried to force Apple and Google to loosen their grip on app stores.
Not much has changed yet. But know that Musk isn’t the only one chafing against Apple and Google’s decade-long sheer power over apps.
If you want 10 percent off socks but aren’t thrilled about giving out your email address, here’s something you can try if you use Gmail: Add a plus sign to your email address, which makes make it harder for the company to track them all down. via Internet.
If your email address is [email protected], please provide the business with an email address such as [email protected]. (You can choose any words you want after the plus sign.)
Messages from the sock company will still appear in your inbox, but the company does not have your real email address. That makes it harder to connect your email to adware from apps like Instagram and present you with ads that track your digital breadcrumbs.
Read more from Heather on how to trick or hide from marketing emails.
Show off YOUR little victory! Tell us about an app, gadget, or tech hack that made your day a little better. We might feature your small victory in a future issue of The Tech Friend.
Source: news.google.com