Sales start early in holiday season

Are you seeing an unusual number of SALE signs at your local mall?

It's the sort of thing you usually see the week before Christmas -- not a week before Black Friday.

But this season, retailers are reaching out to you -- and hoping to loosen your grip on your holiday dollars -- by offering a number of early sales.

Take a walk through Crossgates Mall, and you'll see several signs: "Sale" or "Buy 3, Get 2 Free." Shopper Claire Patti tells us she normally doesn't come to the mall this early for holiday shopping but decided to do so Wednesday. "We heard there were a lot of sales and there are!" she said.

Fellow shopper Michelle Testo says coming out early to shop. She said it saves "a little bit but it's definitely helping" with the bottom line.

Ginger Berlin has already snagged a new computer from Best Buy, saying the prices were down 10 to 15 percent.

Berlin has kept her eye on flyers and coupons and did her homework, interrogating store clerks. "I had asked him, 'Should I wait till Black Friday and get the doorbuster?" she said. "He said it wouldn't do me well, so I went ahead and bought it today."

Best Buy says they're not doing anything special and won't get sale information from their top brass until next week.  They also point out that they will match any competitor's price.

But shoppers-in-the-know are hitting the malls early, hunting down deals.

Most store managers would not talk to us on camera but they gave us a mixed-bag assessment. Some say they're not doing anything differently; others say they're doing anything they can to lure people into stores, including offering "Buy One, Get One Free" deals or starting sales a week early.

The National Retail Federation's 2008 holiday survey found 40 percent of consumers planned to start holiday shopping before Halloween. Around 38.6 percent started in November.

And even though they're buying early, more than ever before, shoppers are hanging onto another tool -- the receipt -- as protection if there are further price dips.

"Yeah, it's right here," says Ginger Berlin, "Purposely." So even if she gets a good deal, she's watching to see if she can save money if it comes down in price.