Online Versus In The Store: How Good Are End-Of-Year Sales?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — After Christmas shoppers are taking advantage of what retailers are calling "better than ever deals."

Retailers are slashing prices to clear store shelves of unsold inventory. But are those end of the year deals really that good?

CBS13's Lemor Abrams headed to the Arden Fair Mall to put the prices to the test.

In a completely unscientific experiment, she found some incredible deals unavailable online. Past the season finale sales signs were the "buy one get one free" deals.

We spotted Zenayah Singh and her brother Ronaven. They used their Christmas gift cards to get some hot ticket items.

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So did a quarter of the shoppers at the mall, according to the National Retail Federation. They also say half of the shoppers are capitalizing on after-Christmas deals.

But would they have been better off going online? We checked.

Singh's Nike shoes were selling on Amazon for $159. She said she got it in the store for $80 bucks.

Another shoe shopper did pretty well too. Mikayla Bowie spent $65 on a pair of Vans. We found them online for $85.

"That makes me happy," she said.

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And for some window shopping at Sears, we spotted a Kenmore Elite oven for $134.99 in the store and found it on Amazon for $165. That's another win for in-store shopping.

"A lot of people returning items and stuff…and so stores can possibly sell them at a cheaper price," said shopper David Cisneros.

The deals convinced Cisneros to get out early for electronics. He bought a 60-mile Mogu Leaf Antenna from Best Buy for $49.99. A little digging and we found it on WalMart.com for $44.99.

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"Does this change your mind about your shopping experience? Definitely," he said.

Shoppers we spoke to say they benefited from comparing prices.

The National Retail Federation says it's too early to tell how retailers did. But early data show U.S. retail sales were up five percent this year, averaging more than $850 billion.