The Daily Money

ALL THE MONEY NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Fri Nov 29 2024

Betty Lin-Fisher | Consumer reporter

@blinfisher

Happy Black Friday and I really hope you don't have a Brown Friday today. This is Betty Lin-Fisher with Friday's consumer-focused The Daily Money.

I have already been shopping this morning. Have you?

But even though I woke up early (not planned) and debated whether I wanted to go to some stores, I didn't have anything on my shopping list that was a "must have" or "door-buster" deal. So I first logged onto my laptop to check out the deals and ended up staying in my pajamas to shop.

But are Black Friday deals really deep discounts? Maybe not. A study analyzing 65 products that were expected to be among the best Black Friday tech deals found that 30% of those products saw price hikes before the event to make the Black Friday price look like a deep discount, reports my colleague Medora Lee.

Consumers need to research and compare prices before purchasing, said Daniel Pearson, chief executive of KnownHost, the company that completed that survey.

Shoppers walk past a holiday display at Nordstrom on Black Friday at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus on Friday morning, Nov. 29, 2024.

Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

How to find and stack deals while holiday shopping

Did I get the best deals this morning while shopping? Maybe or maybe not. I was making decisions based on whether I thought the price was good. It's totally possible that the "regular" price shown was inflated, but personally, I wouldn't have paid that regular price if I could help it.

I also signed up for several free services that can help me save money while shopping and earn some rewards and I added some shopping discount programs to as browser extensions while I was shopping.

I learned those tips from two consumer advocates who I interviewed for a story on how to add more savings and find deals as you're shopping – beyond just sale prices.

I have the rest of the day off after finishing this newsletter, so I still plan on doing more online shopping and heading to some stores to browse.

Would you tip a holiday retail worker?

So while I'm out shopping at stores, should I be tipping the retail workers?

A new survey says 69% of shoppers said they're wiling to tip their retail workers to get better service. That number jumps to 89% among Gen Z'ers.

How much are people tipping and what does an etiquette expert think about this new trend?

📰 Consumer stories you shouldn't miss 📰

•	Here's a good place to start for your Black Friday shopping.
•	USA TODAY has a page dedicated to holiday shopping deals.
•	Here's some shopping editor-approved Black Friday must-haves.
•	Here's more on why as many shoppers aren't lining up outside stores on Black Friday, the New York Times reports.
•	Here's 5 Black Friday shopping secrets.

About The Daily Money

Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer and financial news from USA TODAY, breaking down complex events, providing the TLDR version, and explaining how everything from Fed rate changes to bankruptcies impacts you.

Black Friday 2024: Everything you need to know about the shopping holiday

People shop at the Shops at the Oculus and Westfield Shops during Black Friday shopping in New York City, U.S., November 24, 2023.

A record 183.4 million people are planning to shop in stores and online between Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday in 2024. Black Friday is on Nov. 28.

READ MORE