Tumblertown

Petrol is expensive and time is money. The idea of driving from store to store to comparison shop is just too overwhelming for some people and too expensive and time-consuming for others. If you’re not one of those who finds it fun to hit several different stores when you’re looking for a certain item, then you can use the Internet and catalogues to arm yourself with prices and availability beforehand and avoid multiple trips and disappointment.

First, if you’re a tactile person and you like the feel of a paper catalogue in your hands, request them from the different stores you’re considering. All major stores like Asda and Littlewoods offer paper catalogues that they’ll send you through the mail. If you want to save some trees and/or you prefer shopping online, then pull up the websites into different browser tabs where you can flip back and forth easily. You can also use catalogues and websites to make it easy to look up specific items, if you don’t have a strong preference.

If you’re shopping for something specific like a piece of living room furniture, look at all the offerings one store has. Make a note of what you like and its features. If it’s a specific pattern on a couch or a certain wood colour on the dining room table, make sure you know what it is you like about it. Then look at the other stores’ offerings and look for similar qualities. Very often it’s not one specific piece of furniture or piece of clothing that appeals so much as the colour, the texture or one specific aspect of it that can be found in very different pieces that will still appeal.

Of course, if price is your main consideration then you want to find the cheapest piece of furniture or whatever the item is that you looking for. If you’re shopping for multiple items, keep a running tab of the cost of purchasing them all at one store and find similar items at the other store.

In the end, you might find it’s better to shop at different stores for different items. You could be surprised to realise that you’re not really saving anything by doing all your shopping in one place because you’ll overpay for some items and that will make up for savings on the rest.