Nathan Burrow is an editor who covers shopping, retail trends, and deals. He has scanned countless sales and discounts. Most underwhelm.
Wirecutter’s experts rigorously test everything from blenders to backpacks, and we always take value into account when making our picks. We only recommend items that we truly believe will make someone’s life better, and price is one of the factors we weigh when making a Wirecutter pick. Once these picks are made, our team of expert deal-hunters scours the internet for the best discounts on our tried-and-tested picks, tracking what we call the “street price” over time to determine what meets our threshold for a real deal (and not just a paltry or overhyped price cut).
But in this new era of inflation, finding good deals is increasingly tricky. Recently, we’ve observed spikes in cost—some of them extreme—in nearly every product category Wirecutter covers. What does it mean to find a good deal when the price of everything is going up, up, up? If the street price of a USB microphone we recommend has gone from, say, $90 last year to $110 today, is $90 now a good deal? It’s more than you would have paid six months ago, but it may be the lowest price you’ll see for the foreseeable future.
These cost increases—on everything from gas to eggs to mattresses—have been attributed to a number of factors, but nearly all share one thing in common: the pandemic. Coronavirus-driven shortages as well as increases in the cost of materials and logistical costs are real and well-documented, and many companies have increased prices to levels that offset increased costs and then some. When everything costs more, your dollar doesn’t get you nearly as much as it used to.
The price-matching algorithms that companies use to meet or beat other retailers’ prices seem to have worsened the problem, as prices now rise en masse as those retailer sites automatically match one another. The rising tide lifts all prices, as it were.
3 examples of increased prices of Wirecutter picks
1. Dyson V8 Animal Cordless Vacuum Cleaner
Street price in 2019: $300 to $350
Deal price in 2019: as low as $200
Street price in 2022: $450
Best price we’ve seen in 2022 (so far): $330
The Dyson V8 Animal is our runner-up stick-vacuum pick. It’s a mid-tier model in the V8 line, replete with attachments and suction power to spare. But in the grand ecosystem of Dyson stick vacuums, some of which feature actual lasers, the V8 Animal is comparatively utilitarian. Our Deals team at Wirecutter tracks sales on the V8 and V7, models we consider roughly equivalent in features and quality (the V8 has a slight battery-life edge and an extra tool).
In 2019, the V7 Allergy was on sale for as little as $160. The more robust V7 Absolute saw regular drops to around $200. Now the V7 goes for $400. During rare sales, we’ve seen it this year for as little as $250, but that’s still a price hike of 20% relative to historical sales.
A few short years ago, we saw the V8 go on sale for as little as $250 multiple times. Today, the V8 lists for $450 and goes on sale for $330 in the versions we recommend—a big hike relative to pre-pandemic sales.
2. KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer
Street price in 2019: $280 to 330
Deal price in 2019: $200 to $230
Street price in 2022: $450
Best price we’ve seen in 2022 (so far): $300 (though a coupon with member sign-up drops the price to $264)
Spiking demand for KitchenAid mixers seems to be a primary driver of their price increase. With the pandemic in full swing and jokes about sourdough starters making the rounds, many turned to bread and pastry baking as a hobby. Stand mixer sales took off, and suddenly our top pick, the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, was in short supply. Prices spiked, and even though stock issues seem to be behind us, prices haven’t fallen back down to Earth.
We regularly found deals between $200 and $230 for the Artisan Series 5-Quart until mid-to-late 2020, especially if you weren’t picky about the color. Since then, though, the price has skyrocketed, with this mixer regularly going for $450 and the very best sales still coming in at $300 or more.
3. Dramm ColorStorm Premium Rubber Hose (⅝ inch by 50 feet)
Street price in 2019: $55
Deal price in 2019: $43
Street price in 2022: $85
Best price we’ve seen in 2022 (so far): $63
This hose is a longtime Wirecutter pick and reader favorite. But when senior staff writer Doug Mahoney began reassessing our garden hose picks for a 2022 update, he noticed something. “The Dramm was always on the expensive side, but we were OK with that because it had a number of smaller features that we valued. But with some of the recent price increases we’ve seen, it’s entered into the realm of ‘OK, for this price, it better be pretty close to perfect,’ and it’s not.” Some digging confirmed Doug’s price finding. The 50-foot length was around $55 at the time we initially made it a pick (roughly 5 years ago). Today it’s ballooned to $85. While small, steady increases in price are to be expected over time for an item without planned obsolescence, the Dramm has seen much starker increases, even hitting $100 in recent months. As a result, Wirecutter now has a different top garden-hose pick. “The price has exceeded the value of the Dramm hose,” Doug said.
What constitutes a deal now?
How we react to inflated prices being the new normal is important. Wirecutter’s deal experts have never taken retailer sales at face value. We never parrot company claims that a “sale” price is a truly good deal. We do our own research. Price precedent has always been the foundation of our approach, and that remains true even in this era of inflation.
We’ve long tried to hold ourselves to the standard of only sharing deals on Wirecutter picks if it’s the best price we’ve seen within at least the last 90 days. But as prices rise—sometimes wildly—we’re increasingly looking at holistic price trends over time, as well as informed predictions of the future. After all, judging a deal today strictly against prices from last year isn’t particularly helpful if we suspect the price won’t return to 2021 levels for the foreseeable future.
But big price hikes should still be treated with some skepticism. Has the price jumped 30% in the last 120 days? If so, it might be advisable to wait to purchase if you can, even if the price is a 90-day low. When inflated prices are the norm, there are still different levels of discounts, and it’s our job to divine which sales are better and worse.
Let’s return to that example of the USB mic we recommend. If the everyday price was $90 last year and has risen to a street price of $110 today, is $90 now a good deal? Yes, $90 is a good deal, but not a great one. We’ve reset expectations, and because deal prices of $70 to $80 aren’t realistic any longer, our target price range is now $80 to $90.
It’s exceedingly unlikely that we’ll be seeing all-time lows for the majority of Wirecutter picks for the foreseeable future. That’s the reality we all live in. But we’ll still ensure you’re getting the best deal possible and a good value—not just a small discount in a marketplace run amok.
This article was edited by Annemarie Conte and Ben Frumin.
