Black Friday Shopping Tips and Secrets: Black Friday University!

If you want to be a successful Black Friday shopper you going to need to know how to “roll” with the “big dogs”. Here are some of the veteran Black Friday shopper’s secrets:

• Go with a “team” so you can split up and grab door busters for each other.
• Make sure that the people you are shopping with you have the same objectives in mind. There is nothing worse than getting all pumped up for the big day only to find out that your shopping buddy would rather kick back and relax in the food court or spend an hour trying on 15 pairs of jeans in the dressing room.
• Talk to the store employees to get inside information on how that store’s Black Friday system works. Do they hand out tickets to those waiting in line? How early do people usually start lining up?
• Do a little recon the day before Thanksgiving so you know exactly where to go in the store for the item you are looking for.
• Have a defined plan of attack and decide what your priorities are. Gain early access to Black Friday ads to plan ahead.
• Bring snacks to keep your energy level up.
• Make friends with those that are in line with you…it can be hugely rewarding!
• If you live in a cold weather state dress in layers.
• High speed, low drag: You want to bring as little as possible into the store so you can have both hands and arms free.
• Dress comfortably, Black Friday isn’t about fashion! Trust me, you’re going to be happy you wore your tennis shoes after a few hours of standing in line and shopping.
• Black Friday is not a good time to decide to be a line cutter. Sometimes it can be tempting to get caught up in the hype and do something you might not have normally done. Unfortunately, everyone else is hyped up to, so line cutting never turns out very good.

Now, if you are not interested in braving the weather or the lines on Black Friday there are a few secrets that could potentially allow you to get the same great deals and save you a lot of time:

Price Matching

Many stores will price match other store’s deals. There are some tricks to doing this though:

• Make sure to review the store’s price matching policy in detail.
• Talk to the store that you intend to price match at before the big day. Find a manager who will be there on Black Friday and talk to him or her about what you intend to price match.
• Make sure that the store you intend to price match at carries the exact same product as the one that is on sale at the other store.
• Personal story: Two years ago, we were able to get the same amazing price on a TV that was a door buster at Best Buy without having to camp out in front of the store all night. We simply took the Best Buy ad to Ultimate Electronics and they price-matched the ad with no questions asked!

Price Adjusting

Some stores will allow you to buy a product early and get it price adjusted on Black Friday. Here are some tips to help this this:

• Review the store’s price adjusting policy.
• Make sure you are buying the exact same product that is in the ad, right down to the UPC and product number. Sometimes stores will release products with unique “Black Friday” product numbers to prevent you from price adjusting, so this is a very important step.
• Get it in writing that they will adjust the price from a store manager if possible.
• Wait to open the product until the price is adjusted just incase you are not able to get the price adjusted for some reason. That way you can still return it.