7 Of The Most Overlooked Stores With Electronics Deals You Should Check Out

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Whether it's a single-person apartment or a two-story family home, the modern household is run by electronics. Modems and routers keep us connected, phones and computers are essential for communication, and TVs, game systems, and music players provide endless entertainment. Home electronics are more accessible than ever, but not all of these devices are affordable. Waiting for sales or clearance rack refreshes can help you save money on a new electronic, but if you're wanting a more active way to get the best deals on essential gadgets every homeowner should have, you need to look where others don't.

A number of stores and outlets have some unique programs that really maximize your savings potential. When directed towards the electronics section, these unorthodox promotions can result in some surprisingly good prices in the place you'd least expect it. We found the biggest, best examples of that and organized them for you here.

At first glance, the Staples Easy Rewards system might look like your run-of-the-mill rewards program. You buy things, earn points, then redeem said points for a discount. What sets Easy Rewards apart is the customized bonus categories. Each account can select up to three categories as a "bonus category," earning twice as many points whenever you buy an item from that department. While categories like Paper, Ink & Toner, or Office & School Supplies are obvious choices — it is an office supply chain after all — you can also save on electronics by selecting Technology & Accessories as your bonus category.

This results in an inverted version of most savings programs on this list. Instead of finding extra discounts specific to that one category, buying electronics from Staples will result in a larger discount on anything you want in the store. This can, of course, be directed right back into electronics. Staples already has a surprisingly diverse selection of electronics, ranging from wearable tech to video game consoles. If you're someone who buys electronics frequently, this can be a great way to build up rewards faster.

Sam's Club has already established itself as a savings-focused wholesale store that offers lower prices in exchange for a recurring membership fee. This alone is enough to make your local Sam's worth checking out, especially when some discounts are enough to offset the membership fee immediately. But if you look a little deeper into its Sam's Cash system, you'll find even bigger savings.

Beyond the standard membership is the Plus option, costing more while offering 2% cash back on all purchases. These rewards, known as Sam's Cash, are enhanced even further with a lesser-known section of its marketplace called the Sam's Cash Promotions program. The products listed in this section fall into one of two types: the store offers a flat rate of Sam's Cash for each purchase (usually $10), or it offers discounts between 10% to 90% off of that product. The flat rate Sam's Cash opportunities can be found on items as low as $20, translating to a solid 50% cash back.

With Sam's Club already offering some great deals on electronics (including some cheap TVs you should buy), this system can provide some of the biggest discounts possible. With some careful planning and patience, you can use your existing Sam's Cash to bring those already reduced prices down to zero!

There's simply no need to build your own computer anymore, but some people still like to — finding joy in picking out parts and assembling a complete, custom machine. As an online-only electronics storefront, Newegg should be a familiar name to anyone who's been in the market for computer parts. But in the 25 years it's been in operation, Newegg has expanded to cover all sorts of different consumer electronics. And while there's plenty of traditional discounts and savings events to be found, the real surprise is in its Shell Shocker section.

Items in this section are either put at moderate discount (usually around 30% off), are part of another discount event, or have been marked as products that are their lowest price in 30 days. The catch? Shell Shocker deals are blink-and-you'll-miss-it opportunities, where every product listed will only be there for that day. While some of the listed items can still be found in different sections of the site, other discounts are truly limited time. This combination of flash sales, market trends, and aggregated discounts makes the Shell Shockers section one of the best corners of the site to discover unexpected savings. All the while, its potential for discounts is overlooked because of its short-term nature.

If you don't want to wait around for Best Buy's seasonal sales, like the annual Tech Fest deals, you can usually find great deals through the retailers Open Box discount. Nobody wants to pay face value for a product that has already been opened, and Best Buy understands that better than almost all other big-box stores. Rather than sending the otherwise perfectly functional electronics back to the manufacturer, it cuts the price and calls it an Open Box discount in hopes of enticing a sale.

Open box sales are a commonly misunderstood as a gentle name for broken, returned product. That's not the case, though. To Best Buy, open box items are any item that had its packaging already opened, whether that's through damaged packaging, a product being used as a display model, or, yes, returned items. All open box items at Best Buy work like new, though they're given a visual blemish rating, along with an appropriate discount.

While the degree of savings can vary, you can expect to pay around 30% less for any given item. When that applies to high-cost items like MacBooks and OLED TVs, that can translate to paying hundreds of dollars less for the same product on the shelf. Disregarding an open box product is just one of the various mistakes everyone makes when shopping at Best Buy.

Arguably the least expected place to look for electronics deals, Kohl's is good for more than a new pair of slacks. Hidden away in its Home and Pet section are the electronics, where you can find a surprisingly expansive selection of items, ranging from smart watches to speaker systems. Overlooked, sure, but where are the deals'? The discounts are found through the Kohl's Cash redemption periods, also known as Kohl's Cash events or Coupon Dates.

Kohl's Cash is an oddly restrictive reward program. When buying specific products during a specific time, you'll earn Kohl's Cash, which can be redeemed on future purchases of your choice. Each event has its own expiration date for the cash you earned. The trade off to these limitations is the above-average amount of rewards cash you'll earn. The usual rate is $10 for every $50 spent, or a 20% cashback rate. This can be extended further if event items have extra Kohl's Cash rewards listed. Kohl's also makes it clear that the cash compounds with existing promo codes, sales, or discounts, allowing you to double up the savings.

While known for its general electronics and PC part selection, Micro Center is one of the few places that takes it to a nerdier extreme. It's the only place you can get a new TV, DDR5 RAM, printer filament, and a Raspberry Pi Pico in the same trip, and it also specializes in 3D printing and microcontroller engineering. Micro Center's focus on the complex diversity of the tech world will appeal to any hardcore tech enthusiast, especially if you take advantage of the various perks you may not realize come with Micro Center's membership program.

With only 30 physical locations, though, a large chunk of America doesn't have quick access to a physical storefront. That's a shame, because its in-store only system is secretly one of the biggest discount programs available. Frequent online shoppers will likely have noticed that the best discounts are on items marked as "Available for In-Store Pickup Only." It's since been confirmed by a staff member that the main reason is because the store can offer deeper discounts on items that way. It also doubles as an anti-scalping system. 

Micro Center is true to that, too, with things like high end graphics cards sometimes being listed for over $1,000 less than the competition. These discounts aren't always displayed on the product page, either, so if you aren't already price checking items with other stores, it's very easy to miss how good a deal something is.

Ollie's Bargain Outlet takes a different approach to retail. This discount retail chain focuses on hunting down closeout, overstock, or otherwise bulk sale products from other sellers, buying them at a big discount, then selling them in its own stores for less than market average. That includes electronics, with its home electronics department listing items for anywhere between 30% and 70% off. It doesn't need any special programs or promotions, since the entire business model is a deal. Even so, Ollie's also has a traditional rewards program, which boils down to a 10% off coupon for every $250 spent (or $167, if you use its credit card). 

The only problem is that you never know what you'll find at an Ollie's Bargain Outlet. That business philosophy means that everything it stocks is at the whims of the local economy. Your nearest store might have a slew of electronics one week, and absolutely nothing the next. So, while you can't be sure you'll find something you need, you can be sure what you do find will be at a good price.