Surviving Black Friday

Lining up my strategies for surviving the holidays while on the austerity budget. Decided to share with you my time tested tactics for getting the most for your dollar on Black Friday. Here are my 12 tips for surviving Black Friday.


Read your paper. Check Black Friday sites. Thursday’s paper will be stuffed like a thanksgiving turkey with ads, coupons, and circulars. It's your best source for Black Friday savings in your local area. Take a few minutes to map out the savings for the items you’re looking for. Pay attention to the times of specials listed as most stores will be offering special discounts that are time sensitive (e.g, doorbuster or early bird sales.) further capitlize on the coupon deals. Don't have a paper, visit one of the aggregator of Black Friday sales such as blackfriday.info, black-friday.net or Dealtaker

Do your research before Friday. Make your list of big ticket items. Research the product beforehand. Save yourself some buyers remorse caused by buying a bad product at cheap price.

Map out your shopping trip. Map out your travel route based upon your buying priorities. Many of the deals offered this season will be time-sensitive deals requiring early visits (e.g., earlier bird specials) to the store. These deals are offered with a “no rain check” condition. When the supply is gone, it's gone.

Check your prices. Use an online price comparision site like Pricegrabber, Bizrate, Shopping.com, Streetwise, or Dealtaker to help you compare the sales flyers prices for your item. Pay attention to the product options included in the product. Sometimes stores offer a stripped down product at a low ball price to get you in the door. Sounds like a good deal until you start to tally up the costs of the extras needed to make the product run as you’d expect it too. In store and need to do a price check? Dial up FruCall (1.888.d0.frucall), enter the bar code for the item, and learn the price that online retailers are offering the product at.

Be the early bird. The best deals are likely to be the early bird or doorbuster deals. Know when your stores open, get in line at least 1-2 hours in advance of the store’s opening, and run to whatever items you need to buy.

Make nice with your neighbors in line. If you’re standing in line for a few hours, make friends with the people in line around you. Offer up some of your dougnut holes, exchange shopping tips, and most importantly, save your spot in line should you need to dash off to use a restroom.

Order online. pick up at the local store. Lots of retailers will be posting their Black Friday specials before the actual day. Take advantage of the ability to order your items online and pick them up at the local store to save on shipping and the headaches of crowds.

7 days of Black Friday. (Tues – Monday) Stores will start marking down items on Tuesday for the rest of the week to entice consumers into their stores, so it makes sense to shop early if you can. Also, check retailers’ websites in the days prior to Black Friday as there are often “web special” deals in advance of the in-store promotion.

Return and rebuy. If there is a product that you really want and you know its going on sale for Black Friday, buy it in advance. Return it to the store during the sales promotion and rebuy it at the lower price. Make sure you understand the store’s price adjustment and return policies before doing this tactic as the store may have a “no returns” policy or have a time-limit on price adjustments.

Bring the proof to get the lowest price guarantee or a price match. While many stores will offer a “lowest price” guarantee, in order for you to get it, you’ll need to provide proof in order to get it. This means you’ll need to produce a copy of the sales ad where the product is being advertised for less. Save yourself some time, by taking advantage of a store’s price match guarantee. If it’s on sale at a competitor but also at the store you’re at, ask for a price match. This can save you several car trips to other stores on Black Friday.

Know the return policies. Knowing the stores return policy while you figure out where to buy an item. Given less consumer spending due to the faltering economy, I’ve noticed a few changes in store return policies that I’d like to share with you: (1) Elimination of the extended return timeframe. Standard or short return timeframes have been implemented. (2) Implementation of re-stocking fees for big ticket or large items. (3) No receipt; No Return. Also, retailers are clamping down on requiring receipts for returns/exchanges so make sure to ask for gift receipts for hassle free returns.

Charge It. Charge cards like MasterCard, Visa, and Discover offer free benefits that drive up the value of your products above and beyond that offered from a store branded card. Benefits include: extended warranties, Return production, and sales price protection. Of course, charge only what you can afford to pay off.

Happy Shopping!