Holiday shopping 101: Do so safely, prudently, locally

Nothing signals the opening salvo of the frenzied holiday shopping season more visibly than the plump girth of Thursday’s Thanksgiving edition of The Vindicator. Many meticulous readers likely are still poring over its hundreds and hundreds of pages of Christmas- season ads and retailer inserts. They trumpet sizzling gift buys ranging from tacky but trendy holiday sweaters for Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe to jumbo pooch beds for Fido and Fifi.

Yes, Virginia, that singularly sensational season of Santa Claus and spotlight super sales has arrived. And the 2016 holiday shopping season promises to be particularly robust, especially here in the Mahoning Valley.

An improving economy and heightened consumer confidence will translate into Americans shelling out a record $655.8 billion this season to satisfy their gift- giving appetite. In the Mahoning Valley, consumers are expected to increase spending now through Christmas Day by 6.2 percent over 2015 – the highest growth rate of any metro area in the state, according to the Ohio Council for Retail Merchants.

But to maximize pleasure and minimize pain whether you’re shopping among the crowds in brick-and-mortar stores or amid the heavy traffic on the World Wide Web, we offer a few words of advice: Shop safely, shop prudently, and shop locally.

Holiday time is prime time for unscrupulous opportunists to ply their trade. Jingling bells beckon bulkier ranks of pilferers, robbers and identity thieves. That’s why it’s important for shoppers to practice several time-tested techniques to lessen the potential of having the joy sucked dry from their holiday shopping adventures.

Among them are trying to shop during the day and in groups, staying alert constantly to what’s going on around you, carrying cash and credit cards only in your front pockets, watching eagle-eyed over your purchases and avoiding wearing expensive jewelry.

In addition, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine offers a set of tips to avoid holiday scamming. They include:

Plan before you shop. Review store ads carefully and compare deals. Important exclusions and limitations should be disclosed in ads, including online, so check the details.

Keep your receipts. Maintaining a complete record of a sale will help you handle problems that may arise after the purchase.

Use secure websites when shopping online. Use secure websites whenever you need to enter personal information online. Look for websites that begin with “https” instead of just “http.” The “s” stands for secure.

KNOW YOUR SPENDING LIMITS

Smart shopping also means prudent shopping. Temptation runs high to exceed one’s spending limits. That’s nowhere better reflected than at consumer counseling agencies, which typically witness a 25 percent increase in the number of people seeking relief from indebtedness in January and February, and most of that business results from good-intentioned yet irresponsible and excessive holiday spending.

Set shopping budget limits before heading out to the mall or surfing through retailers online. Also treat credit-card purchases as if you were making them with cash. If you cannot reasonably pay them off within 60 to 90 days, rethink the scope of your generosity.

And once you’re fully armed and prepared to trek out shopping, do so locally. Instead of making that shopping trip to Cleveland or Pittsburgh, visit a Mahoning Valley shopping mall or locally owned business. Doing so will save you time and money and inject momentum into both the local economy and the strained coffers of local governments.

This year that point is particularly cogent because of looming and massive cuts in sales-tax revenue on deck next year. Beginning next summer, sales tax can no longer be applied to insurance company services to cover Medicaid. As a result, Mahoning County alone stands to lose an estimated $3.7 million annually, representing nearly 10 percent of all sales-tax revenue, used to finance critical services such as police protection, court operations and road maintenance.

What’s more, shopping locally also helps retailers stay profitable, keeps employees on board and stimulates the broader Valley economy. Toward those ends, make it a point tomorrow – Small Business Saturday – to patronize the many small store operators in our region for many one-of-a-kind gifts.

So go ahead. Study those sale ads, make your list, and check it twice. With a little forethought and caution, your shopping trip can rise to become one of many very merry sensory experiences of the holiday season – and not sink into a humbug-worthy pit full of peril.