One week from today is Black Friday. Stores are getting ready to lure you through their doors, but you might want to get started now, or maybe even wait.
"You have some deals that really are the best that you're going to find for quite some time, maybe the whole year, and you have other deals that will be maybe not quite as good as they seem or maybe have been trumped even by earlier or later sales," said LSU business professor Dan Rice.
Rice said shoppers who know what to look for could find better prices, but if the sales ads don't show competitors matching or beating the prices you see on similar items, then that Black Friday deal may be the best for you.
"See if they have specials on the same product, and if they don't, or they have a special that's nowhere near as good, as the deal that you found at some particular retailer, then that may be an indication that it really is a pretty good deal," said Rice.
And is camping out on the sidewalk waiting for door buster sales really necessary? It all depends on how bad you want the item, because some stores may run out of merchandise and not restock it before the holiday.
"What those often do," explained Rice, "is they get you in with the mind set that 'I want to get a new television, but I didn't get a great deal on that one, well, I'll get this other one since I need a television.'"