Manufacturers have cut back production to meet the decreased demand from retailers who are worried about buying more than consumers are willing to buy. This affects consumers who traditionally look toward outlet store to offer deeply discounted prices. Outlet stores rely on the excess inventory from the main store to stock their shelves, excess inventory that may not exist this holiday season. Retailers are discounting heavily this year making it just as lucrative to shop directly at the store versus the outlet location.

Other changes this holiday season may be noticed when a store sells out of a favorite product. In past years, that store would likely reorder items that sold quickly to satisfy consumer demands. With fewer products available from the manufacturer, many stores will have difficulty restocking certain equipment in time for the holiday. Consumers who count on last minute discounts on these products should consider buying items when they are available or risk going home empty handed.

Retailers who are already fighting for survival in a weak economy face an uncertain future after this holiday season. Large department stores have lost many customers who have decided to stretch their dollars even farther by shopping at discount stores. Consumer sales are expected to improve this year versus last year’s numbers, however no one expects to see the same carefree, credit fueled shopping that was common before the recession. If large retailers cannot turn their numbers around, many will be out of business in the near future. This will limit the options available to consumers when the economy recovers.

The best strategy for holiday shopping this season is simple and straight forward. Make your Christmas list early and buy products when you find them. Shopping around or waiting until Christmas Eve will leave many people leaving the store empty handed. Shopping online might improve your chances of finding a popular item quickly, however it does not change the fact that fewer items have been produced. Avoid limited inventory or bare shelves by getting out there early and securing your purchases while merchandise is available.

Shop Early Before Inventory Disappears was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

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The Frugal Duchess offers The Carnival of Personal Finance #183 was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Never Too Late to Save

While many consumers have gotten in the habit of starting a Christmas Club early in the game, many more either do not think about it in time or feel they have no money to spare. But whatever the case, even $5 a week will make a dent in your shopping needs. But for those who haven’t yet saved, there is still time. Take the remaining amount of months left until the shopping season (August to November = 3 months). Consider the amount of money you think you will spend on gifts and other holiday-specific needs and divide it by three to gain a better understanding of how much money you need to tuck away each month.

Never Too Early to Shop

While a budget may prevent a lot of miscellaneous spending, there may be benefit in purchasing items you find on sale. If you are lucky enough to find great sales on your gift ideas, make sure you keep track of what you have purchased and for whom. Don’t just throw it into a closet and forget about it until the week before Christmas or you will likely overspend on other gifts that weren’t even needed. In addition to spending a little bit at a time instead of one lump sum, you also have the advantage of finding items easier as opposed to when they are in the highest demand. By giving your self more time, you’ll also come up with better and more unique Christmas gift ideas.

Nothing Wrong with A Gift from the Heart

If you have enough time because of early planning, you may be more inclined to create gifts for others. There is no rule that says all gifts must be store bought and with the exception of some children, many people would be delighted with a homemade gift from the heart. This approach can only work if you start early so there is no rush to bring the project to completion. If you are a knitter, a woodworker, or craftsperson, there are a wide-range of items that could be worked on. Anyone with a hobby can turn a little time and effort into big savings.

Never Too Early to Think About Santa was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

While last-minute holiday shoppers can score some good deals, this is not the case for the 2008 holiday travel season. Those who procrastinate might just have the Grinch steal their Christmas travel dreams.

The latest figures from OAG’s consolidated database reveal a 7% drop both in the number of flights and in seat capacity for October, November and December 2008 compared with the same time last year.  The U.S. domestic market will account for about 20 million of that figure, or 33% of the global decline in capacity, in what could potentially be the most widespread crisis to hit the aviation industry in recent memory, according to an OAG press release.

Steve Casley, Chief Operating Officer of OAG, said, “The data speaks for itself. It took a good three years for the industry to recover from the downturn in 2001 when it had a 5% drop in capacity and a 7% drop in flights.  Steady annual growth since 2002 looks set to plummet in the fourth quarter this year with an unprecedented global decline of 7%.”

OAG reports it is not only passengers who are facing reduced service and choice.  Many airports will be severely affected by the announced cuts by airline operations, with 275 airports around the world losing scheduled air service altogether based on current filed schedules. Of these, 32 are in the U.S. while 116 are in the Asia Pacific region, OAG reports.

Traveling during the holidays is hectic enough as it is without this capacity reduction and service elimination to certain airports. Travelers hoping to travel over the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas), should consider booking their flights now with this newly released data.

OAG, which also maintains the world’s leading fleet database, has adjusted its 10-year forecast for the global scheduled aircraft fleet to shrink by more than 3,500 aircraft as a result of high jet fuel prices and to reflect the impact of these capacity cuts.

Now is not the time to procrastinate or to hope airline prices “might” drop! “If you know you are traveling during peak holiday time, then go ahead and purchase your ticket now,” says Bill Thomas, owner of Tropical Latitudes Travel. “The continued airline turmoil is not conducive to shop around and only to end up paying more for a ticket, but even more importantly, missing the flight opportunity all together.”

To ensure travelers’ holiday trips are protected, travel insurance has never played a more important role. Those traveling during the holidays can purchase travel insurance through comparison sites such as Squaremouth.com to ensure their Christmas is still merry!

Do not assume that purchasing travel insurance through the airline direct is a full-proof protection as if the airline declares bankruptcy; customers are not covered, according to Squaremouth.com’s CEO Chris Harvey.

Travelers Who Wait Might Have a Disappointing Christmas: Nearly 60 Million Airline Seats will not be offered was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The reason most people don’t give other people cash and rather give them gift cards is because they want the person receiving the gift card to use the money on themselves as something special, and not just let those funds disappear into their regular spending money. If you want to give them money to explicitly spend on themselves for fun, then do it, but don’t do it in the form of a gift card. Get creative about it. Attach a letter telling them why gift cards are terrible, terrible things and tell them to spend the money on themselves and request a report on how much fun they had spending it. It might not be the best gift idea in the world, but it sure is better handing out a gift card!

When you buy someone a gift card, you are sending them a message that you know how to manage their money better than they are, and should be able to decide which store they spend the money you give them at. It might surprise you, but not every goes to the same restaurants and retailers that you do. In fact, gift cards are never even used. That doesn’t even count the gift cards that are used but only half the balance ever gets eaten up and then it just sits in a drawer somewhere while the balance slowly declines over-time thanks to inactivity fees which are completely junk fees. Chances are they’ll be hit with all sorts of other fees which are designed to suck money off the balance of the card.

There’s only one time when it makes sense to use a gift card, and that’s when you’re given a discount on it. Since a lot of people realized that gift cards are total junk, many restaurants have been offering gift-cards at a discounted rate. You might be able to get a $25 gift-card for just $20.00. In this case it makes sense to get a gift-card if you know that you’re going to make use of it. It’s essentially free money, but that’s the only time it makes sense to ever purchase a gift-card, otherwise you’re just putting un-needed restrictions on your money!

Gift Cards are the Worst Possible Present to Buy Someone This Christmas was created by and is property of American Consumer News.