joining me is regina lewis. good saturday morning to you. what is this about black friday?ay after halloween, come on that. >> walmart will cut prices on 20,000 items or roll them back, as they like to say, and amazon starting their famous daily deals, and they have current deals, upcoming deals, and my favorite, missed deals. there are two already that are designed to create a sense of urgency. i don't want to miss it. alex, overall, as people run into the strategy, it has to do about the race to get to the customer first, because people have a finite amount of crash or credit to use and they are probably not going to shop at walmart and target, kohl's, and macy's. if they shop at amazon, they will shop everywhere else. >> okay. bargain airfare. which airline and where can you go so far for so little? >> wow airlines, they are based in ice lynn and have a four-carrier fleet. check out some of the numbers. $99 from boston. and comparisons, really striking, the iceland stop n. tums of how it can save you. it saves you big, if you go on to london or copenhagen, the difference

here to discuss this is regina lewis. going to start with you because i read that last year when they had thanksgiving sales that were equal to about 1.8 billion, we saw black friday sales fall by about $1.8 billion. why be open on thanksgiving? >> i think it is a zero-sum game. but it's not just thanksgiving day, maybe waited until three or four clock, if you stretch out the conversation, now the guys are watching football, and you with your sister and say, let's take a break. >> and there is the fighting and all the arguments. [laughter] >> you see more and editors choice deals, more than black friday, more than cybermonday. >> people want the deals, but i'm going to take from the side of the retail employees are not volunteering. and there are lots that are not volunteering and don't get the option of volunteering. have pity on these men and women. and you can get this stuff on friday or saturday, but the deal to be competitive is crazy. >> the demand is there. if you look at this, 45 million shop on thanksgiving. this

>>> black friday lessons and hot toys, and joining me to break it down, usa today contributor, regina lewis. let's get the early read on the weekend holiday shopping. >> an early read on online sales, and they are up and that's to be expected, and 14% for black friday, and 8% for black friday, and 14% for thanksgiving day, and the biggest surprise on the online side, the best buy site crashed, and good sign for demand but not good for them. and i can tell you that it appears there's a lot more night owls in america than early risers, and stores were crowded on thanksgiving, but i was in the stores on friday morning, black friday, and had them to myself. the magic number throughout the day as things picked up, seemed to be 50% off store wide, and those were crowded and the others, not so much. >> what about the lessons for black friday shoppers? >> the atlantic, which has wonderful online content took economic theories and applied them to the entire shopping season. the first is timing. and trying to outsmart that, which a lot of people spend time o. are the best deals now or later, and best

joining me to break it down, regina lewis. hope for the holidays? yeah, retail sales up .3% in october. directionally it's terrific. and it is fueled literally by declining gas prices now under $3 for most americans. it's a holiday bonus and that's particularly powerful for retailers who cater to low and middle income customers. walmart by way of example were very sensitive to the changes in the discretionary income. and aggregate, these gas price declines add up to $100 million extra in consumer pockets every day. so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. could be a very merry holiday. >> very merry christmas inside. what about the wild and crazy pies. what's going on there? >> pizza hut is doubling their menu with some eclectic culinary combinations. they're changing the logo, the pizza boxes and their attire. they're going after millennials here who are used to having unlimited choices and want to put almost anything on their pizza. we'll see if it works. they've claimed two billion combinations with names like this. >> well they're fu

with me now, consumer expert regina lewis, host of money quick tips.to make this as easy as possible. you've got some tips. your first tip is to determine a pay strategy. >> absolutely. are you paying all cash or paying credit card? importantly, craig and everyone listening, which credit card and when is that payment due? it doesn't matter if you use it today, tomorrow, cyber monday. the real date is the day, depending on how you're playing, the incremental payment, the minimum. also consider what currency means. maybe you have reward points from a credit card. just a little tip there. when you go to the site for the reward points, whether it's mastercard, visa, you can buy the coffee maker or buy gift cards from specific retailers. honestly, your buying power really pays to gift cards to a specific retailer. >> really? >> yes, so be judicial about how you trade those in. >> i just learned something new. why shouldn't i get the coffee maker? >> because the tradeoff in terms of the points per dollar is lower on the coffee maker than it is for sak's, nei