discounts posts

Get 5% to 15% off at Sears during its friends and family VIP night sale this Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009. This discount can be used on sale items and almost everything in the store. The online sale is all day Sunday until 4 a.m. CST. Monday. In store the event is from 6-9 p.m. local. Print the coupon here. No code needed online.

Get 15% of clothing, shoes, accessories, fragrances and fine jewelry. Get 10% off almost everything else including appliances, toys, tools, auto, fitness equipment and more. Get 5 percent off electronics.

For details check out the VIP page here. To read all the fine print exclusions, click here.

DailyCandy, the often irreverent, quirky guide to style and scene has developed a devoted following of online fashionistas seeking to be first to find out who, what and where is hip, fresh and now. Offering tips and trend alerts via email categorized by region and "everywhere" (i.e.national), the website will soon be taking the next logical step toward global style domination. Instead of just talking about fashion, they will be selling it.

Popular and boisterous tech blog Boy Genius Report this week ran what one of their contacts claimed to be Apple's Black Friday ad. The ad claimed that Apple would be going against tradition and offering huge cuts across the Apple lineup.

Just how big were the claimed discounts? The ad claims that Apple will offer up to 30% off of all iPods, up to 25% off of all Macs and up to 15% off of accessories, software and other Mac hardware. Needless to say, these would be big, and I mean BIG, discounts for Apple to pull out on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If they were true, that is.

Woah! Cost Plus World Market is having a huge online furniture sale. Get 25% off furniture with coupon code NOVFURNAF. If you click on the above link the coupon code should automagically appear when you put an item into your shopping cart.

You can also get free shipping on purchases over $50, which is not bad at all, though it does not include furniture. It's unclear when the free shipping deal expires.

The sale also includes up to 60% on bedroom furniture, up to 50% off on dinnerware and lamps, up to 40% off on dining furniture, and up to 30% off on leather furniture. I like this brown leather chair, pictured at right. All you need is a blanket and a book to curl up with.

Caveats: Online only. Not valid on food, wine, gift certificates or previous purchases. Cannot be combined with other offers or promotions.

UPDATE: Just like the leaked ad for Apple proved to be a disappointment, Office Max has informed WalletPop that the leaked ad for Office Max is in fact a forgery. It's a shame that the ad wasn't real because it would have been the cheapest place to get a netbook on Black Friday.

Admit it.: ever since you read our Black Friday 2009 predictions you've been waiting to see the first ad! Well, the wait is over. BlackFriday.info has secured the first Black Friday ad for 2009 which comes from OfficeMax. BlackFriday.info is still labeling the ad as a rumor but feels that is is at least, "partially correct."

OfficeMax's new ad is available on their Facebook fan page and still offers a few deals to keep a watch on.

• $49 - High Back Executive Office Chair
• $24.99 - 7" Digital Photo Frame
• $79.99 - Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student edition
• $39.99 - Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 (Speech Recognition for your computer)
• $39.99 - Linksys Wireless N Router

Incorrect leaked deals:
Here are some of best deals which match up with our Black Friday predictions.

• Acer Aspire One Netbook - $149.99
• Magellan GPS - $69.99
• Memorex 7" portable DVD player - $29.99
• Microsoft Office 2007 - $49.99
• SunGale 7" Digital Picture Frame - $29.99

These are just some of the doorbuster deals to be had when OfficeMax opens at 7 AM on Black Friday. They also have discounts on digital cameras, memory cards, office chairs and many other accessories.

Now that the first ad for Black Friday 2009 has leaked out expect to see others follow in its footsteps. Even with new security measures in place to prevent leaks like these BlackFriday.info expects to have 2 more ads by the end of the month and daily updates in November.

If you plan to stand outside for doorbuster deals make sure your read about how to stay safe on Black Friday and as always, check out WalletPop's Black Friday 2009 coverage for additional deals and details.

Following the long line of companies helping out the unemployed in hopes of keeping them as customers when they get back on their feet, Kmart is offering a 20% discount to the unemployed on its private label grocery and drugstore staples for up to six months.

It's a smart business move that Viagra, mobile phones, health clinics, resume printers, auto dealers and airlines, among many others, are offering job seekers struggling to pay the bills in the recession. The idea is that these customers will return to your business when they have money to spend.

The Kmart Smart Assist Savings card was started in Michigan, with its 15.2% unemployment, this summer and is being expanded across the country. It offers 20% savings on more than 1,500 of the company's brand products. Sale and clearance merchandise is excluded.

People who want the card must sign up for it online. Cards will be issued through January 2010. The only potential drawback is that it takes a bit of identification verifications to prove you're unemployed. Like the stigma of pulling out food stamps at a grocery store checkout line, fumbling for your unemployment documentation may be a little embarrassing.

Billeo announced a cool new feature today that brings savings and discounts to the search results of Google, Yahoo and Bing with its new Offer Assistant service. The new Offer Assistant service provides offers from more than 300 retailers, including big names like Best Buy and Nike directly in search results.

Many of the discounts provided are tied to credit card loyalty programs, which typically offer good discounts on purchases but are often forgotten about when it comes time to shop. Since 70% of online purchases begin at a search engine, Offer Assistant makes it easy to find the savings you already deserve.

When you get to the check-out stage of an online purchase and see the box waiting there for a coupon code, what do you do? Skip it? Search your email for a discount directly from the retailer? Or scour the web for a code supplied by some friendly virtual neighbor? If you're like most people these days, you're hitting Google and relying on the kindness of strangers to get you free shipping or some percentage off and typing in codes until one works.

For consumers, the wide availability of coupon codes on the web sounds like a no-lose situation, but with success comes problems. Online coupons and codes are now subject to tampering and the whims of the retailers who accept them. Before you start virtually clipping, there are a few things to know.

"Coupon use in the last 12 to 18 months has been explosive," says Bill Bishop of Willard Bishop Consulting. "Some retailers are afraid about security issues and there is plenty of fraud that goes on."

Neiman-Marcus, suffering from plummeting profits over the last year, has announced a major change in its marketing approach. Rather than positioning itself as a price-is-no-object retailer, it will now begin offering lower-priced goods and promotional marketing events. By doing so, the company hopes to attract some of its cash-strapped former customers who currently are flocking to discount retailers.

Neiman-Marcus isn't the only top-tier store that has recently decided to take this approach. As the past few months have demonstrated, the main problem with über expensive retail is that its key assumption is flawed. Many companies have spent years under the misapprehension that a department store can stay in business by solely appealing to obscenely wealthy customers.

In trying to get butts in the beds, seemingly every hotel has had the same idea: discount! Rather than giving away the store with outright per-night price cuts, thousands of properties are offering two-for-three deals. That is, stay two nights and get the third free. That's the equivalent of a 33% discount.

The options span from the cheapest highway crash pads to the fanciest luxury enclaves. Take your pick, because right now is the sweet spot:

Wal-Mart's great value line of products already includes over 5,200 items, offering savings to its customers on everything from paper goods to beauty products to snack foods. So in normal times, expanding the offerings by about 80 new products might not be the most headline-inducing news, except that these are not normal times. And store brand products are not the bland, cheap offerings they used to be (or were perceived to be).

Last week, I wrote about the upcoming bloodletting on Broadway, in which six big musicals would close in two weeks. Well, make that seven. Another struggling show, the Patti LuPone revival of Gypsy, has moved its closing date to Jan. 11.

Current movies such as Frost/Nixon and Doubt may have arrived at your multiplex by way of Broadway, but as the economy seizes up, that fertile proving ground is quickly becoming a desert. One of the most parched producers is Disney Theatricals, which currently has three expensive productions on the Great White Way, none of them on steady financial footing.

Whereas a year ago, obtaining a discounted ticket to a Disney show was nearly impossible, last week the entertainment giant was shoring up business by saying if you bought a full-price ticket ($121.50) to one of its shows from January through mid-March, you could bring someone 18 or younger with you for free.

Airlines are the squeaky wheel of the travel industry, and they get a lot of grease in the media, so by now we all know how to navigate ticket buying. But baggage fees are on the rise and airfares are an uncertain game of roulette, so many of us are choosing to go to Grandmother's house by land instead. Going over the river and through the woods isn't such a bad way to do it, either, because there are some sterling savings opportunities if you go by wheel instead of wing, as MainStreet.com points out in an article today.

Here's my take on some of Lyneka Little's suggestions:

ONLINE DISCOUNTS: Some suggestions are obvious to those of us who have been using a computer for more than a few months. Those include always checking the websites of your chosen carrier (Amtrak, Greyhound, and so on) to see if its online prices beat the ticket office. Don't stampede straight to the reservations search boxes, either, because most sites have a marked page of specials that shouldn't be ignored.

MEMBERSHIP PRIVILEGES: Make sure you milk every discount you can. I know plenty of people in their early 50s who squirm at their AARP eligibility, but when they realize that they can use that status to save some bucks, suddenly the card is waved with pride. Even young whippersnappers might have AAA membership, and that can bring some surprising deals (although it's a motoring organization, Amtrak will cut rates for it). Check your local AAA branch for a list of discount opportunities. Often, these price cuts will work even during the holiday rush, including at hotels.

When litigator Mitchell Berns was told by Delta that his flight was canceled because of weather, he didn't get mad. He did research.

He checked with the National Weather Service and found out the airline's excuse was a sham: Snow wasn't due for many hours.

See, airlines are allowed by law to cancel flights because of bad weather, but Berns knew at a glance that Delta was just using it as an excuse. He booked with another airline, took off, and then filed suit against Delta in small-claims court to force it to pay back the cost of his replacement flight.

Delta tried to settle the matter by offering him frequent flier miles. But as most travelers are already too aware, frequent flier miles are woefully devalued, over-issued, and flooding the travel market.

As Berns told Fortune -- and this is my favorite part of the story -- frequent flier miles are "Confederate currency." Just as Dixie once did, instead of dealing with systemic problems, the airlines are just printing more useless cash to pawn off challengers.

Retailers are crying about lackluster sales in the days leading up to Christmas, but shoppers don't have to worry that this might hurt their post-holiday bargain hunting. If anything, it will help.

Price-slashing is an annual ritual, and this year it might be better than ever as retailers say they have too much inventory because of lower-than-expected sales.

The items that are expected to be discounted the most? Women's apparel and consumer electronics. Clothing sales have been down overall, so there is room there for bargains. Toys will still be discounted, but retailers ran some early sales to help boost lagging numbers, so the after-Christmas discounts won't seem so deep.

Stores used to dread January's low sales. With the dramatic rise in gift card sales, that's not true anymore. Retailers know shoppers will be out in January, so it's up to them to lure buyers back into the stores with great deals. Plus, shoppers usually spend more than their gift cards are worth, so retailers have an extra incentive to bring in the masses.

Forensic accountant Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations through her company, Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners honored Tracy as the 2007 winner of the prestigious Hubbard Award and her first book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud, will be on bookshelves in March 2008.