Every weekday morning, millions of Americans watch "Good Morning America" roll out another batch of "Deals and Steals" — deep discounts on everything from air fryers to skincare to luggage.
The pitch is simple: limited-time codes, exclusive markdowns, often half off or better.
But before you hand over your credit card, it's worth asking a boring question.
Who actually eats the cost of that discount, and what are you really getting?
The segment works by partnering with brands that agree to steep temporary price cuts in exchange for national TV exposure.
The brand gets a flood of orders and email addresses, ABC gets engaging content, and you get a lower price than usual.
The catch is that the "usual" price is often the manufacturer's suggested retail price, which few people ever actually pay.
A blender "marked down from $200 to $90" may have been selling at $110 on Amazon all along.
That doesn't make the deals worthless — plenty are genuinely good, especially on household staples.
Codes usually expire within a day or two, sometimes hours.
Quantities are limited, and sellouts are common, which creates urgency.
If you miss it, there's always tomorrow's segment, and the next one after that.
The format is designed to keep you watching and clicking, not necessarily to get you the best price on anything in particular.
There's also the fine print on shipping, returns, and warranties.
Some Deals and Steals partners are smaller direct-to-consumer brands, which means you may be dealing with a company you've never heard of.
And if something arrives damaged, you're often working with the vendor, not ABC.
A discounted price is cold comfort if resolving a problem takes three weeks and six emails.
To claim a deal, you typically hand over an email address, sometimes more.
That's a mailing list signup disguised as a bargain.
Expect follow-up marketing, and expect your inbox to get busier.
Others find it annoying enough to skip the whole thing.
None of this means you should ignore the segment.
It means you should treat it like any other sale: check the price elsewhere first, read the return policy, and decide whether you actually need the item before the timer runs out.
A deal on something you weren't going to buy isn't a deal at all — it's spending.
The real winners here are the brands getting free national airtime and the network monetizing its audience.
You can still come out ahead, but only if you shop the deal instead of letting the deal shop you.
Final Thoughts
Watch for the genuine markdowns, ignore the manufactured urgency, and don't let a ticking clock make your decisions for you.