'The deals are just horrible': Shoppers say a lack of holiday discounts has dampened spending [View all]

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

Zarah Reeves waits all year to buy clothes, electronics, cosmetics and dorm furnishings, timing her purchases to the deep discounting so pervasive in the run-up to the holidays.

But this season, brands that once slashed prices 50 to 90 percent starting on Black Friday are sticking to markdowns of “10, maybe 20 percent,” she said. So the 20-year-old Howard University student is buying less, and even made a pact with her best friend to skip Christmas gifts altogether.

“The deals are just horrible,” Reeves said. “I’m looking at these discounts, thinking: That’s it? Never mind.”

The ever-deepening discounts — long integral to a retailer’s survival — are diminishing in the face of rising costs and supply chain challenges, leaving Americans without the big holiday markdowns they’ve come to expect. Prices are higher everywhere, even online, as companies adopt more personalized strategies based on a shopper’s buying history. Analysts and industry insiders say the shift could become long-term.