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The best deal you ever got probably took some work. You watched a price, waited for it to drop and pounced before it bounced back.

Patience has always been the shopper’s edge. The store sets the price, but you decide when to pay it.

For most of retail history, that tug-of-war ran at human speed. Stores changed price tags weekly, and you compared circulars or browser tabs to spot the real bargains.

Price-tracking sites such as Keepa and CamelCamelCamel sped things up a little. They could ping you when an item dropped, but you still had to see the alert and tap buy before the deal vanished.

Big sales mostly turned up the volume. Amazon’s (AMZN) Prime Big Deal Days event, which runs Oct. 6 and 7, is built around limited-time drops that reward whoever moves first.

Now, for the first time in an October sale, Prime members can let an AI do the moving. Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping lets you set a target price on an item and switch on Auto Buy, so the assistant purchases it as soon as the price falls that far.

There’s a catch. You aren’t the only one using a bot this week.

Amazon’s artificial intelligence assistant can now buy an item the moment it hits your price.Techa Tungateja / Getty Images

Why Amazon handed Prime shoppers an AI buying button

Amazon launched Alexa for Shopping on May 13, folding its Rufus chatbot and its upgraded Alexa+ assistant into a single tool. Rufus helped more than 300 million customers research and buy products in 2025, according to Digital Commerce 360.

The assistant runs on the Amazon app, Amazon.com and Echo devices, and most of its features don’t require Prime, Axios reported.

“Alexa for Shopping is like having an expert personal shopper who already knows you,” Rajiv Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of conversational shopping, said, according to Digital Commerce 360.

Two features matter most for your wallet this week.

Related: Jim Cramer just made a shocking call on Amazon stock

The first is price history. Amazon now shows 30, 90 and 365 days of an item’s pricing right next to the price on product pages, according to the company.

The second is Auto Buy. You set a target price, and Alexa places the order with your default card once the item arrives. That feature is Prime-only and works only on items fulfilled by Amazon, PCWorld reported.

Auto Buy meets dynamic pricing in a 48-hour sale

Amazon isn’t running this week’s sale alone. Target (TGT) is holding Target Circle Deal Days on Oct. 6 and 7, the same dates as Amazon, NBC News reported, while Walmart (WMT) runs its Deals event from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, according to Fox Business.

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That overlap matters because big retailers don’t set a sale price once and walk away. Many use software that reprices products as demand, inventory and rival prices shift.

Hexaware Technologies (NSE: HEXT), an IT services firm, sells one of those tools, an AI pricing engine called RapidPricer.

These systems let a retailer answer a competitor’s price cut within hours instead of weeks while protecting the margin on related items like accessories, Hexaware senior consultant Arturo Ivan Garza Gonzalez wrote in a company blog post.

“Knowing which prices customers will tolerate is step one,” Garza Gonzalez wrote.

In my analysis, that sets up an odd matchup. Your Auto Buy order is a bot waiting for a number, and the retailer’s engine is a bot deciding whether that number ever appears.

Where an automatic purchase can drain your wallet

Auto Buy takes the effort out of deal hunting. It also removes the pause where you’d normally ask whether you still want the thing.

Here’s what the fine print looks like, according to PCWorld senior writer Ben Patterson:

Orders are charged to your default payment method

You have 24 hours after the order is placed to cancel it

After that, Amazon’s regular return policy applies

Coupons can’t be applied to an Auto Buy order

You can keep up to 200 Auto Buy orders active at once

“You’re essentially handing Alexa your credit card,” Patterson wrote.

That convenience can cost you in four ways:

A target set too high. Say a blender lists at $200 and has dipped to $150 a few times this year. When I ran that math, a $180 target looks like a win but leaves $30 on the table, which is why the 365-day low matters more than today’s sale tag.

A deal that was never a deal. Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler tracked roughly 50 items he had bought on Amazon and found that buying them during last October’s sale would have saved him about 0.6% on average, he reported in the Washington Post.

A purchase you forgot you scheduled. Requests can stay active for up to six months, according to EcomCrew, an Amazon seller blog. An order you set during a sale can fire after your budget or your needs have changed.

A missed coupon or a messier return. A clip coupon on a manual checkout can beat your Auto Buy price. Once the 24-hour window closes, undoing the purchase means a return instead of a click.

Smart rules for setting a target price that saves

You can still make Auto Buy work for you. It works best as a way to automate patience.

Start with the 365-day chart. Set your target at or near the year’s low, not at whatever the sale banner calls a discount.

Check the same item at Target and Walmart before you lock anything in. Those sales overlap with Amazon’s this week, and a quick comparison takes less time than a return.

Audit your list. PCWorld noted you can ask Alexa, “What are my Auto Buy items?” to edit or delete orders, and a monthly check keeps old requests from turning into surprise charges.

Keep it for things you’d buy anyway. Paper towels, a replacement charger or a gift you’ve already researched are good fits, while a big-ticket item you’re unsure about isn’t.

What October’s deals tell you about holiday spending

The stakes get bigger in a few weeks. Adobe expects U.S. online holiday sales to hit $275.1 billion from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, up 6.7% from last year, and forecasts AI traffic to U.S. retail sites to jump 130%, according to an Adobe statement.

That makes this week a dress rehearsal. More of your holiday spending may soon run through algorithms on both sides of the checkout.

A bot that buys at a price you researched is discipline on autopilot. A bot that buys at a price you guessed is impulse shopping with better timing.

The number you give it is still your job.

Related: Amazon is coming for your quick Walmart run

Jim Cramer did not mince words about the Treasury secretary. On his Oct. 5 “Mad Money” show, the CNBC host said Scott Bessent had essentially admitted he cannot stop the bond market’s slide.

Cramer said he was “plugging the dike with a finger,” according to CNBC. He made the remark while arguing that bonds give a truer read on the outlook than oil.

The jab landed a month after Bessent took the opposite tone. In early September, Bessent said he had an informational edge over traders and declared “I am the house now.”

Treasury had already promised in August to at least double its usual debt repurchases. Bond traders took him up on the bet.

Also read: JPMorgan’s CEO sends stern bond market warning to investors

Cramer’s case against the buybacks

Cramer’s argument comes down to scale. In his telling, Treasury’s purchases are a single finger holding back a wall of Treasuries worth trillions of dollars. No realistic amount of buying, he said, can steer prices for long.

Bessent has said something close to that himself. He told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that officials cannot set the equilibrium price of Treasury yields. He said the buybacks were meant to keep the market working during a stretch of poor liquidity, not to cap yields.

The timing of the purchases made Cramer’s point for him. On Sept. 9, Treasury announced $6 billion in buybacks on the same day it held a new 10-year note auction. Bond strategist Guy LeBas said the buying was not enough to make a difference.

Cramer is not alone in his skepticism.

Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, called the largest operation “little more than a rounding error” next to the size of the Treasury market. Traders read the buybacks as too small to hold down long-term rates.

Scott Bessent has essentially admitted he cannot stop the bond market’s slide.ROBERTO SCHMIDT / Getty Images

Why Jim Cramer trusts bonds over oil

The other half of Cramer’s message is about which market to believe. On the same show, he said bonds, not oil, are telling the truth over the longer term.

He also rejected the idea that cheaper crude means the war risk has faded. Oil is falling, he said, because a major producer cut prices to win market share. It would only trade on its fundamentals, which point much lower, if the war with Iran ends.

That is a shift from his view a few weeks ago. On Sept. 14, Cramer summed up his bull case on X as oil going down, rates going lower and the market going higher.

The bond market broke that chain the next day. The 10-year yield closed at 5%, its highest close since 2007. The Fed raised rates the day after that.

Bessent reads the same link the other way. He has said long-term yields are closely tied to crude prices and refining spreads, and that rates should come down once the conflict passes and oil supply improves. Cramer is not willing to wait for that.

What Cramer thinks is really selling bonds

Cramer sees several forces behind the selloff. He pointed to heavy government borrowing, demand for financing to build data centers, and hedge funds betting against bonds. He said bond sellers have been anything but stupid so far.

The bond market has also brushed off good news. Cramer noted that the relief a jobs report brought to yields lasted less than a day.

On Oct. 5, the 10-year yield topped 5.34% even as stocks rallied, according to CNBC. The Federal Reserve is not offering much cover either. On Sept. 16, it raised its benchmark rate by a quarter point, its first increase since 2023.

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Citing inflation above its target and higher energy prices, most officials expect another hike this year. Big banks share Cramer’s doubts about the buybacks. Goldman Sachs strategists said the program is unlikely to meaningfully reset rate levels even if it grows.

Wells Fargo said real relief would need slower growth and inflation or tighter government finances. JPMorgan warned that moving away from regular, predictable issuance could make investors demand a higher risk premium.

What Cramer’s warning means for investors

For stock investors, Cramer’s concern is how narrow the rally has become. He said Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta are propping up the market while rising yields weigh on most other stocks.

He described “tremendous distortion caused by some very big winners,” according to CNBC. If higher yields eventually reach those three, he argued, the market’s record highs could prove less durable.

He also warned against reading those gains as a sign that all is well. The AI-led rally, he argued, is masking stress in the Treasury market. The bond market, he said, is the better guide to where Wall Street goes next while rates stay under pressure.

Households are feeling it too. The average 30-year mortgage rate passed 7% in late September for the first time since January 2025.

Mortgage rates tend to follow the 10-year yield. Higher borrowing costs could keep would-be buyers on the sidelines. If Cramer is right, the daily close on that yield matters more than any promise from Washington.

Related: Scott Bessent sends clear signal to bond market investors

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All-you-can-eat buffets have become less common across the U.S. in the years since the Covid pandemic, with several long-standing chains closing restaurants or disappearing from markets altogether.

The once-buzzing establishments with long lines and seemingly endless options are not what they used to be.

The traditional buffet model has faced a number of challenges, including changing consumer habits and rising food, labor, and operating costs. Some of the industry’s biggest names have also gone through bankruptcy or significantly reduced their footprints.

Now, an all-you-can-eat buffet chain is making a comeback after filing for bankruptcy twice and closing all of its restaurants.

Founded in 1987, Souplantation in Southern California and Sweet Tomatoes in most other regions were all-you-can-eat, self-service buffet chains known for their expansive salad bars and fresh-made, better-for-you food concept. The company was incorporated as Garden Fresh Corp. in 1989.

Souplantation is opening in California

Souplantation is returning to California after its parent company permanently closed all its locations in 2020 during bankruptcy proceedings.

The upcoming restaurant is expected to open in Fountain Valley in 2027, according to a Sweet Tomatoes Instagram post.

The company has not yet disclosed the exact location of the new restaurant. Souplantation previously operated a location at 11179 Talbert Ave. in Fountain Valley, which closed during the pandemic.

While the California Souplantation will be the first location to reopen since the 2020 bankruptcy, the Sweet Tomatoes brand has been gradually returning to the market since 2024.

A company called ST Three LLC acquired the intellectual property rights out of the 2020 bankruptcy and revived the brand. It opened the first Sweet Tomatoes restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, in 2024, followed by another location in Fort Myers, Florida, in 2026.

Souplantation is returning six years after closing down all locations.Mel Melcon / Getty Images

Souplantation’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restaurant closures

Garden Fresh Restaurants Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2016, reporting between $1 million and $10 million in assets and between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities. At the time, the company operated roughly 123 to 130 restaurants across 15 states.

As part of the restructuring, Garden Fresh Restaurants closed between 20 and 30 underperforming locations across the Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes brands.

In early 2017, Garden Fresh Restaurants’ assets were sold to Cerberus Capital Management. The company emerged from bankruptcy with approximately 90 to 104 restaurants.

Garden Fresh Restaurants filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2020 as the pandemic severely disrupted the restaurant industry, particularly businesses that relied on self-service dining.

The filing led the company to liquidate its assets and close all 97 of its remaining restaurants.

All-you-can-eat buffets struggle

Souplantation’s planned return comes as traditional all-you-can-eat buffet chains continue to face significant challenges.

I recently reported for TheStreet that Golden Corral has closed at least six restaurants in 2026 across six states and has significantly reduced its footprint over the last several years.

Here’s some of my previous coverage on more restaurant closures:

Mexican chain closes all remaining locations after 22 years

Popular restaurant chain closes all locations after 55 years

Popular Mexican chain closing all locations after Chapter 11 rescue

Buffets LLC, the parent company of Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, Ryan’s, and Furr’s, operated about 90 restaurants before the pandemic, but nearly all of its locations closed during Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring, according to Dealroom.co.

Even the popular buffets in Las Vegas have struggled. In 2019, approximately 70 buffets operated on the Las Vegas Strip, but only about half a dozen remain today, according to The New York Times.

Since the pandemic, economic uncertainty, changing consumer habits, and high food, labor, and operating costs have continued to challenge the model.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Associate Professor of Hospitality Amanda Belarmino told Marketplace that consumers’ eating habits and attitudes toward buffets have changed over time.

“All-you-can-eat restaurants aren’t as appealing to people anymore because of the rise of weight-loss medications like GLP-1s and because people have become more health-conscious,” said Belarmino.

The decline of traditional buffets has left fewer options for consumers who enjoy the all-you-can-eat format. Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, however, have a somewhat different proposition than many traditional buffet chains, with an emphasis on salads, soups, fresh-made dishes, and other lighter options.

That positioning could give the revived brands an opportunity to appeal to consumers looking for a different type of all-you-can-eat dining experience as the company works to rebuild the chain.

Related: All-you-can-eat buffet chain shuts down restaurants after decades

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