Some say that shopping on Black Friday, the next day after Thanksgiving, is the favorite contact sport in the United States after American football. So if your plan is to go looking for offers, you will need more than sharp elbows.
Often (but not always) electronic items, especially televisions, tablets, and computers, have the lowest price of the year, which means that it is easy to get caught in the frenzy and end up spending more than you thought.
Here is a game plan for top black Friday deals: a list of tips for holiday shopping that guarantees you will return home not only with the best offers but in peace with your conscience.
1. Prepare yourself.
Only newbies rush to buy Black Friday without having done their homework at home. This means studying the advertisements, print and online, the weekend before Thanksgiving. It is still early, but Black Friday opportunities are already beginning to seep. (We have already weighted Dell electronic bids).
If you find a great deal in a retail store, compare it to some of the price comparison sites mentioned below, to make sure you won't get any better anywhere else.
2. Don't focus only on Friday.
Black Friday has been transformed and is no longer a single day but a whole month of savings on your purchases. In fact, many retail stores publish special offers in the days before Black Friday, so start early.
Also, when it's time for the crowds, this will help you assess how good those Black Friday deals are. The same goes for Cyber Monday or Cyber Monday, which now extends up to a week of special offers online.
3. Compare prices.
Websites such as mydeal, PriceGrabber, PriceWatch, ShopAdvisor, Shop Savvy, can guide you to find a good deal anywhere else, so it's worth checking out. The Buy Via app not only allows you to search for specific items at local retail stores but sometimes also provides you with coupons.
Even Pinterest has price alerts that track items you have marked on certain websites and will send you an email when prices drop.
4. Mydeal.
Large stores sometimes have loyalty programs that report their offers and promotions to their members before anyone else, and then allow them to earn rewards on what they buy. Sign up to receive shopping alerts for Black Friday about upcoming discounts, coupons, and promotions. In some cases, you can even find out if the products you are looking for are in stock or are eligible for an option to buy online or pick up at the store that saves shipping charges.
5. Take good advantage of social media.
Facebook pages and Twitter entries from your favorite retailers are a great way to find out about offers and promotions. These retail stores often reward buyers who follow them or like them with special alerts about incentives and Black Friday discounts. And, of course, text messages, tweets, and posts are an easy way to share intelligence work before Black Friday with your friends.
6. Charge your phone with applications.
Before heading to the store, make sure your smartphone has a well-charged battery and also has some of the price comparison applications already mentioned. In addition to providing pricing information, they often serve to order or track items through a personal search list. Many include a barcode reader to help you compare prices and a QR code reader to allow you to access coupon codes and special offers.
Many of these websites for Black Friday also have their own shopping applications. And in addition, retailers like Amazon have applications that allow you to use a smartphone's camera to read product codes and prices and search prices online. In some traditional retail stores, you can use that information to try to get better prices.
7. Make a budget and don't overdo it.
The Black Friday offers, and especially the irresistible offers that are available in small quantities, were designed for you to enter the store and retailers can sell you something else.
Decide in advance how much you want to spend on your Black Friday shopping trip, and do your best to resist impulse purchases, especially if you don't know for sure how much a particular offer is convenient. If you discover that you are being very liberal with payment cards, try this year, buy in cash and see if you exercise better control.
8. Review all commercial store policies in advance.
It is always convenient to know the commercial policies for price matching and return. As we noted in our 5 predictions for Black Friday, we expect this year to be more retail stores that match prices on specific offers, both online and in the store.
Target recently expanded its policies, and both Best Buy and my deal will match prices to varying degrees. Other stores, however, could suspend their price-match guarantees during Black Friday weekend, so read the fine print. When you review the trade policies for price matching and exchange for Black Friday offers, make sure the store will not charge you a restocking fine for any item you return.
9. Avoid expensive accessories.
You just found an amazing 65-inch TV at the lowest price of all time, so don't waste your savings on expensive accessories or warranty extensions. It is here that retailers get their benefits. That's why the aggressive sale. If you know you will need an HDMI cable, buy it in advance at an online retail store such as monopriceor bluejeanscable This way they will not pressure you to overpay the store.
10. Keep in mind that the lowest priced offers are not always the best.
Special offers tempt people with economic mirages, but they may not offer the best product or the most suitable for your needs. This is especially true for large budget items, such as televisions. Such products, particularly imitation models created especially for Black Friday events, may have lower specifications or fewer features than standard products from the same manufacturer.
While this may not be a problem for a secondary or tertiary device, you will probably want better performance and more features on your main TV. Better yet, you will find that a retailer has more margin of offer with an advanced model than with a basic device, so during your Black Friday purchases don't be afraid to ask for a better price for the TV you really want to have.
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