Undoubtedly, the words promotion and offer help buyers make faster decisions, especially taking into account that today saving is the goal that everyone seeks in times when austerity is an important step, so that money yields more.
The foregoing has to do with the fact that the cost of living due to inflation is increasingly higher. Food, clothing and even leisure activities, such as traveling or eating in restaurants, have become a luxury for many.
This year, for example, plane tickets are more expensive because VAT returned to 19%, after it had been reduced to 5% during the pandemic. Food, for its part, continues to be the item that most impacts the cost of living for Colombians. Hence, many families choose to look for promotions in different supermarkets or stores.
Several households are dedicated to hunting for food offers, and it is that today different stores throughout the country offer various ways to acquire promotions and buy much cheaper products. For example, there are establishments that allow their clients to accumulate points, which can be replaced by money in the future and with which buyers can pay for a part of the products they purchase.
Transformation
Banking has also been transformed in such a way that several supermarkets or stores have credit cards with their own brand, but beware, keep in mind that when you buy with this type of card, what is recommended is to send the payment for a fee to thus avoiding interest.
Interest rates are already at 12% as a result of the restrictive monetary policy that the Bank of the Republic has taken, in order to counteract inflation. The usury rate is also above 40%, a historically high figure. That is why experts recommend not getting into debt with cards.
The truth is that, in search of economy and healthy finances at home, several families have turned to finding promotions, especially in the family basket through applications or in the same supermarkets in their online or physical stores.
There are days of offers in which milk, rice, butter, some references to cookies, chocolate or coffee have some type of discount and that is when the offer hunters take the opportunity to buy cheaper and save.
In these times everything is valid. Many families today take very seriously the issue of buying promotions in order to save some money. Some even separate their household members to go to the stores and find different offers, others opt for the applications; The truth is that in several homes teamwork gathering information to go shopping is essential to save.
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Marketing
Amparo Torres, a 42-year-old nurse who lives with her husband and eight-year-old son, says she has one of these own-brand cards from a national chain store. The store sends text messages when products are on sale, and she takes advantage of these opportunities. “I always try to take advantage of these offers, also because the store allows me to pay with a credit card since many times I don’t have cash to make purchases,” she added.
On the other hand, Angélica Martínez, 35, maintains that her thing is not to go shopping in supermarkets or stores. She prefers to do it through mobile applications, where she frequently, depending on the day, can find various promotions. In addition, she takes the purchases to the door of her house.
“Going to the supermarkets to wait in line is not my thing, for time and convenience I prefer to do the shopping through the application, where I can get discounts and I also receive it at home,” said Angélica.
However, there are many families in Colombia who choose to shop in their neighborhood stores, because they assure that everything is much cheaper than in large chain stores.
Camilo Sánchez, for example, says that together with his sister and his mother they decide to buy in supermarkets where they offer promotions for packages of fruits or vegetables that normally cost between $2,000 or $3,000. “Another thing I do is buy fruit according to the harvest. For example, sometimes mangoes or tangerines are much cheaper and you can buy a quantity for less.” In other words, there is more supply of certain products in some months, which causes the prices of some foods to drop.
Purchase recommendations
Personal finance experts say it is important to learn to use credit cards wisely, as they are not extra money. Sometimes it is easy to get carried away by that feeling that we will not pay it now and we can spend a little more, but when you least expect it, the payment arrives and if it is for more than one installment with interest, what it could cause is that you do not pay on time and then have bad credit (which is also affected when you go over half of your card’s credit line).
Another point to take into account is the monthly payments that some stores offer, but which often have a high interest rate that is not convenient in the long run. It is important to always verify in the fine print that the payments are monthly without interest.
It is also advisable, first of all, to compare various websites. If you see a sale on a location, it’s best to avoid making the purchase right away. The experts invite you to take a short break beforehand and look for that same product on other websites. You may be pleasantly surprised by finding it at a lower price than the one you saw first and thought was very good.