MINNEAPOLIS — It's hard to believe Thanksgiving and Black Friday are just one week away, but if you've been paying attention, you may have noticed holiday shopping deals for several weeks already.
Retail experts say the holiday shopping season is being stretched out this year due to inflation and tight budgets.
Julie Ramhold from DealNews.com said it's a common strategy among retailers this year, to stretch out the season so shoppers are buying a few gifts here and there and might not realize in the end they could be spending more money than they originally planned to.
“We saw pre-Black Friday deals starting as early as September this year. Then in October, they started the “Black Friday” deals and we’ve been seeing a steady flow of deals ever since,” Ramhold said.
Some major retailers are using unique strategies and shopping experiences to attract customers this year.
Best Buy launched a new livestream shopping program in early November.
The company is also rolling out more "experience" stores nationwide that offer customers hands-on experiences where they can test out large ticket items in person.
Target is also releasing new daily Black Friday deals every day in November so customers have to check the website every day to see what special deals are available to them.
Ramhold said retailers are also pushing more member-only deals this year to get customers to only shop at one place.
"We're seeing sort of more exclusivity pop up. Retailers are offering up deals and early access to deals to only their members.”
Ramhold says shoppers can save a lot of money with these memberships, but the trick about memberships is shoppers will often put up blinders and forget to shop around.
There are several apps and websites that track prices of popular items and shoppers can use them to find which store has the best deal.
WalletHub also surveyed more than 3,500 deals to see which retailers stand out.
JC Penney came in at number one with the average deal saving shoppers 59.1%.
Macy's was number two at 58.2%
Target and Best Buy came in at 32.7% and 29.8% respectively.
Ramhold says electronics are great buys this year, especially TVs.
"It's becoming more and more common that we're seeing name brand huge TVs from the likes of Samsung, LG and brands like that for less than $500.”
Ramhold also recommends waiting until December to buy kids toys, because you can usually get a better deal.
"If you're looking for the hottest toys though I would say maybe looking to get those sooner rather than later because the longer you wait on those the more likely they are to sell out."
And just like the season starting earlier this year, experts say the deals will probably stretch further into December this year as well.
So, if you don't see a good deal next week experts say there's no harm in waiting until the first week or two of December for a better deal.
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist: