Are We in a Bargain Drought?

It seems to me that the quality of bargains has reduced since we started social distancing.

How do you find the current quality and quantity of bargains on OzBargain?

Poll Options expired

  • 146
    There is definitely a bargain drought on at the moment. At least I am saving money
  • 24
    I can still find the occasional good bargain
  • 1
    There are lots of great bargains every day
  • 2
    There are more bargains now than ever
  • 4
    Who cares about bargains, there are more important things to worry about right now

Comments

  • +1

    The David Jones further 40-50% discount on sale items was a great bargain

    • Always had trouble ordering from them online. Looks to be good prices but cant actually get purchase to go through

  • I find international shipping more of a problem and that won't improve until Emirates and Singapore passenger planes start flying in volume again.

  • +4

    There's a lot of good deals (100+ votes) on fashion items https://www.ozbargain.com.au/cat/fashion-apparel Even in lockdown fashion continues to move fast.

    Computing and groceries, not so much. Food prices, computer parts such as webcams, monitors, motherboards and memory are going up and Woolworths don't have any good specials. ALDI specials are also kinda meh for the next 2 weeks.

    Hopefully we'll see things normalize by EOFY.

    • I need a couple of warm clothing items and everywhere I look its out of stock! I guess Im going to be layering my summer clothes :)

  • Ever since our dollar took a dive bargains have disappeared.
    Been a few good deals on no name TV's but phones ex asian suppliers have gone up thanks to our exchange rate.
    In general, solid bargains like we knew a year or more ago have disappeared.

    • +1

      The AUD is nearly back to the same value it was at the beginning of February.

  • +1

    There's cheap airfares…

    • +10

      There's cheap airfares airlines..

      Sorry you had a typo..

      • +1

        Should be some bargain 737s coming soon. Don't forget cashrewards.

  • -3

    Many prices don't seem to be set by exchange rates and track US pricing suggesting it's psychological.

    For example currently Nintendo Switch is $450USD in the US. Whereas in Australia it's $450. If it's set by exchange rates someone is making or losing a lot of money at the moment.

    • +1

      The US RRP is $299.

      Where can you realistically get a switch today (in stock) for the AU RRP of $450?

  • +3

    Bargain drought is a bargain

  • +1

    Honestly, more data needed to answer this. Does anybody have a time series chart of eneloop prices?

    • +2

      I prefer to track the standard bikie call out fee (SBCOF)

      • Maybe the combined financial marker of bikie eneloop delivery fee will capture both

  • Retailers haven’t joined the pandemic party yet.

    But with the looming recession they will capitulate.

    Hoard your cash, “Bargains are coming”.

    • But with the looming depression they will capitulate.

      FIFY

  • Definitely - LG 27GL850 was going for 650-700 in a deal and now you're lucky to get it for 850

    Xbox Controllers are about $20 over what they used to be so any deal on it is still overpriced.

  • Yes we need a new microwave, a childs bike and a new mattress. Havent seen any bargains on any of those things. The bike I understand as everyone wants to cycle to get outdoors but all the supposed sales on electrical are just normal (overpriced).

  • +1

    If your a health care worker then there are deals galore. Problems is though you are probably too busy to take advantage of them.

  • +1

    lets hope that for EOFY around there's going to be some step discounting to prop up the books

  • I wanted to fey a mi 9t now it's out of stock at the retailers and bumped up from 500 bucks to 1000 to 2000 dollars. Fk that I will wait till normal times come back.

  • Common triple stacked deals of last year are rare as hens teeth this year :(

  • Merged from Where’s All The Sales in Australia?

    COVID is here, shops are shut, bargains at an all time low.
    What are Aussie retailers doing to combat this? I’m starting to see a lot of online sales start up in the US but mediocre discounts remain at home. I would’ve thought Myer of all places would be doing some decent sales online considering their stores are closed but alas I’m left disappointed.

    Opinions? Thoughts? Rants?

    • +2

      There are plenty of sales from those businesses still operating; I've had emails from Anaconda, Myer, wineries, George Jensen, Appliances Online, Qantas Wine, and a few others in the last day or so.

      Up to each person if they feel the discounts are good or not.

    • +2

      Decent sale from Petbarn earlier today. Got some worming tablets for my furbaby :D

    • +1

      Myer had a huge sale couple weeks ago that was pretty good actually. Went on for a while too.

      If you walk around a mall nowadays, there's offers everywhere in store but would guess most don't have sufficient resources available to manage large-scale online sales right now.

      • Damn I must have missed that one. I won some coles Myer cards and am looking for a tv since mine died today.
        Saw all these tv sales happening in the US and hardly anything noteworthy here. :(

    • +3

      What's the point??

      Australia post is bloody useless. So far (10 days) still awaiting the delivery of a 200g package from Sydney to Perth:

      Delivery was expected
      Mon 20 - Wed 22 Apr*
      DELAYED

      Just so you know, over 90% of late items arrive within 3 business days of their expected delivery date.

      • +2

        So far (10 days) still awaiting the delivery of a 200g package from Sydney to Perth:

        That kind of delivery time for shipments from the Eastern states to Perth was common well before the pandemic happened.

        • No, I've had deliveries from Sydney to Perth over the past 4-5 years take 6-7 days max, now seeing 10-12 days.

      • Tends to be OK on the eastern states.

        • +1

          Not for me; five deliveries out there somewhere.
          Maybe they are now doing last in - first out?

          • +1

            @GG57: I wonder if they end up aggregating, like buses. You don’t see one, for a while, then 5 come at once.

      • -2

        Australia post is bloody useless.

        The competition fairy tale fails to come true again.

    • Yeah I think they could do sales on non-food stuff like lawnmowers, kitchen mixers, televisions, and so on.

      I think stuff like food, chairs and office equipment are less suitable because they are already in short supply.

      As for clothes… I don't know if people buy clothes online without inspection.

      • +2

        With free returns these days I don’t see why not. If you know your size in a particular brand I don’t see a big issue.

    • I would imagine that the ability to provide discounted prices is more difficult because the quantity of people buying items at RRP has dropped.
      .

      • +2

        I would have thought it was the other way around - supply constraints due to increased shipping times and more people buying online (evidenced by the AusPost delays) has meant that businesses aren’t needing to mark down items.

    • Aussie sales compared to US are just Rubbish.

      Still expect the opposite for the next upcoming months.

  • Merged from Not Many Good Deals Because of COVID-19

    Do you think there are not as many good deals (audio-visual appliances) in the past few months because of COVID-19? Is it because the Australian dollar is really low right now?

    • +1

      Yes

    • +1

      No

    • +1

      Maybe

    • +1

      I don't know

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