08:21 AM EST on Friday, November 18, 2005

By ANNA CROWLEY / 6NEWS

6NEWS

With a little legwork on the internet, you could save money while shopping this holiday season.

There are secrets that could save you money and a whole lot of time when you go shopping this holiday season. We've got some information you'll want to know before you buy your first gift of the season.

The holidays start with whimsical wish lists and walks past store fronts but soon it morphs into a nightmare: Black Friday's brutal bargain hunting.

For some shoppers who are savvy enough to log on and save can avoid chaos by surfing company secrets.

They can be found at sites like blackfriday.com, which claims to have inside information on what stores will offer up for sale and what they'll charge.

There are also sites that publish those promotional codes usually reserved for special customers or VIPS, alerting them to special deals and discounts. On those sites, anyone can find them and use them. 6NEWS tried it and we saved $15 for our trouble.

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Is it a victory for consumers? Perhaps.

"Oh I'd absolutely take advantage of that if it was made public ahead of time," said Lori Cook, a shopper.

Author of the Undercover Economist, Tim Harford's an expert on shopping secrets.

We asked him if consumers were winning the war by using the internet.

"I think for the moment we car. We expect to see a lot of competitive pressure and prices coming down and that's really what you would expect," he said.

Not everyone is thrilled about the internet's role in outing such secrets.

Mike Gatti of the retail advertising and marketing association tells 6NEWS "these sites are getting sensitive information that's being leaked. In some cases retailers are canceling these sales."

However, when the big ticket items are on Santa's list and those who want them are persistent savings may come first.

Another money saving secret, the "tall" is not the smallest sized drink at Starbucks, the short is. While it's not on the menu, every Starbucks knows how to make it and it'll save you about 30 cents every time.