With many people starting their holiday shopping early this year to avoid shortages, shoppers have a good question: What if they buy something now and the price drops dramatically around Black Friday?
Mandy Bova is one of those shoppers already crossing items off her list.
"I would say shop earlier than usual," Bova said. "Buy everything that you can."
But she can't help but wonder if her wrapped-up Christmas gifts will go on sale in just a few weeks.
Kelly Goldsmith, who teaches marketing at Vanderbilt University, says consumers can protect themselves.
"The good news is for those of us that are deal seekers, those big Black Friday shoppers, a lot of stores are still honoring deals," Goldsmith said. "Even if you buy it now, they'll honor the deal later, and they might give you some of the price difference back."
How to get a price adjustment
Some stores are promising price-adjust guarantees. Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Costco are among them.
For example, Costco pledges to give back the difference in cost if a shopper buys now and the item goes on sale later. Walmart will even match the price if the consumer finds the product elsewhere. In many cases, the customer can request the price match through the company's website. Costco offers price matching for 30 days after a product is purchased. Target limits it to 14 days. Walmart and Best Buy do not provide an exact timeline. Even if a store doesn't have a price-match policy, experts say shoppers should be bold and ask the retailer for the difference if they spot a sale somewhere else.
Stores will not alert shoppers when the price drops on a recently-purchased item, so you need to check back, so you don't waste your money.
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