Remember those old Christmas movies where somebody would pop into a store at the last minute, grab a gift for a loved one, and everything worked out perfectly? Sure, it’s adorable and a big dose of nostalgia, but in real life, waiting until the last minute is a terrible strategy! You’d have no time to wrap anything, you’d overpay, and all the while you’re super stressed out. But there’s another way Christmas shopping has changed that I think is even more interesting: it’s gone from being a concentrated, predictable expense to something that’s increasingly omnipresent, frictionless, and (worst of all) easy to finance. Too many people aren’t just paying for Christmas late in December, they’re still cleaning up their financial mess well into the next year. We’re joined by Vitaly Pecharsky from Slickdeals to talk about how holiday shopping has changed, what it’s doing to our budgets, and how we can avoid turning Christmas gifts into next year’s financial problem. We specifically discuss: 

• Inflation’s impact on holiday budgets
• Strategies to win during Black Friday
• Good vs great deals
• Price matching and refund policies
• Gaming consoles and TV shopping
• Dynamic pricing in retail
• The role of urgency and scarcity in retail marketing
• Treat yo self?
• Gift cards
• And much more!

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