BasketPrice

How often a price actually changes

How long today's price has held, and how far the item has swung, decide whether waiting is a plan. Neither number is the badge on the listing.

Updated · BasketPrice editorial

The rhythm nobody advertises

Retail prices do not drift daily and they do not sit still for months, and the interval is not the same in every aisle: a laptop and a bottle of detergent are on different clocks. We will publish the interval we measure per category once our own log is long enough to state one — until then, the number that matters is on the item, not in an average.

That rhythm is why "check back later" is useless advice and "the price will drop eventually" is not a plan. The useful question is narrower: how long has today's number held, and how far does this item usually swing?

A price that has held is not the same as a price that just appeared

A number that appeared this morning is a promotion, and promotions end. A number that has held for five weeks is the shelf price, and shelf prices do not fall by themselves — they fall when the retailer decides to clear stock.

Every product page here shows how long the current price has held at each retailer, for exactly this reason. It is the difference between a price you can wait out and one you cannot.

What the band tells you

The gap between the highest and lowest price we recorded for one item at one shop is the honest measure of what waiting is worth. Twenty-five percent means the same purchase costs materially different money depending on the week. Six percent means buy it when you need it.

Category pages here print that band from our own log, so you can see before you start whether patience pays in this aisle at all.

Prices that changed in the last 30 days

Each of these moved down against what the same retailer was charging before — the events this guide is about, as they happened.

A lineTwo or more readings. Every turn in it is a price we saw, with a date on it.A dashed lineOne reading so far. We are not guessing what came before it.3/10 checksHow much record stands behind the price. We hold a verdict until 10.

Questions people ask

How often do retailers change prices?
It depends on the aisle, and we would rather say that than average it away — electronics move far more often than household goods. Every product page here prints how long the current price has held at that retailer and the range we have recorded, which is the version of this answer you can act on.
Is it worth waiting for a price to drop?
It depends on the band, not on the calendar. Where an item swings 25% or more across 90 days, waiting is a strategy. Where it swings under 10%, the waiting costs more in attention than it saves in money.