Why Target's Recent Deal Days Promotion Was a Bust for Me

I didn't spend a dime -- for good reason.

When Amazon announced that it would be running what's effectively a second version of Prime Day during the first half of October, many retailers rushed to get in on the action -- and serve up a healthy dose of competition. And Target was one of them.

Last week, Target ran a Deal Days promotion that included discounts on thousands of products across a wide range of categories. And as a Target fan, I made sure to go online during that time to take advantage of the chance to stock up on some gifts and purchases for the holidays, as well as some clothing for my kids.

Initially, I was expecting to run up a pretty hefty credit card tab in the course of shopping during Target's Deal Days promotion. But in the end, I didn't spend a dime. Here's why.

1. The selection was too overwhelming

I'm not the sort of person who enjoys shopping. Rather, I regard it as more of a necessity. As such, when I do my shopping, whether online or in person, I tend to take a "let's get this over with" approach. And that was hard to do during the Deal Days event.

While I appreciate that Target wanted to offer up discounts across different product categories, I found the process of sorting through those deals to be overwhelming and time-consuming. There was no easy way, at least at first glance, to identify those items that were discounted the most. And so after spending a decent amount of time browsing the site, I basically just gave up and moved on.

2. The deals weren't that great

A 40% discount on a popular kid's toy might prompt me to do my holiday shopping in October. But I didn't see the deep discounts I was expecting out of Target last week.

Most of the items I was looking for fell into the toys and apparel categories. And while I saw plenty of items available at 10% or 20% off, I didn't see too many things of interest with a better price reduction than that.

Since the discounts weren't so substantial, I didn't think it was a good time to make purchases. Instead, I figured I'd see what other deals come down the pike.

Granted, maybe 20% off will end up being as good as it gets for the items on my shopping list. But that's a chance I'm willing to take given that we still have a few more major shopping events on the horizon, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

All's well that ends well

All told, I'm sure plenty of people stocked up on a variety of purchases during Target's Deal Days promotion. But for me, the event was a big bust. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though.

Had Target's discounts been easier to navigate and more substantial, I might've been tempted to overspend. So the fact that I wound up walking away and not buying anything means I may have saved myself some money -- and regret -- in the process.