Ah Black Friday, the kick off to the holiday shopping season. Don’t you love it? Actually, I don’t. Just the crazy videos of brawling over cheap goods in Walmart, that populate Facebook are enough to make you stay home with a good book.
But there are many who thrive on a challenge and live for the deal. So before you head out for your big shopping adventure you might want to keep the following in mind:
1. No TV, smart phone, or appliance is worth being beaten up or arrested over.
2. Tomorrow or next week that item will be on sale again or is on sale somewhere else.
3. Cyber Monday is less risky, you don’t have to camp outside a store and you can shop in your pajamas while sipping your favorite coffee drink.
4. Two things can’t occupy the same space at the same time, so breathing down the neck of the person ahead of you in line won’t put you in front of them (or win you any friends).
5. Is that parking space really worth fighting over (or dying over?).
6. If you’re really determined to stand on-line outside a store all night, leave your children at home. It’s better that your child be disappointed than crushed or trampled by an over-tired, anxious, greedy crowd of bargain hunters.
7. The best deals are on Christmas Eve. Retailers will blow out stock by as much as 75% – and most people are home trimming the tree.
8. If the store has sold out of the item you came for, accept it. Arguing with a store clerk, the manager or the customer who snagged the last one will not magically produce the item for you. (And chances are another store has it anyway.)
9. Dress appropriately, have a full tank of gas and eat before you leave. It’s the biggest shopping day of the year, so traffic will be heavy, parking spaces will be at a premium, you may have to stand in long lines and every local eatery will be jammed. Taking care of the basics will help keep you from becoming anxious.
10. Be safe, be smart and don’t take your frustration out on your fellow shoppers. In your quest to get the deal, remember that everybody else in the store is after the deal too. Tempers can flair, hostility can erupt and you could become an unwitting victim. No physical object is worth endangering yourself or your loved ones. Ever.
If you have any tips, tricks, or sage advice, feel free to leave them in the comments.
Writer Chick
Copyright 2014
Anita Rodgers Mystery Writer 
You know, if enough people refused to shop on Black Friday, the retailers would be forced to give up the idea. Then we could get Thanksgiving back and still have a whole month for Christmas shopping.
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You may be right but Black Friday has been around since I was kid – and that’s a long time. 😉 But the nature of the shopping day has changed so much too. Retailers are offering things like 50 inch TVs, not because somebody wants it for a gift but because they want it for themselves. So it seems to me they are pandering more toward individual greed or craving. And of course the bleed over into Thanksgiving Day itself is disheartening too. It used to be very few if any businesses were opened on Thanksgiving, Christmas and most major holidays. Religious feelings aside, I thought that was appropriate – kind of like having a few national days of rest, relaxation and friend and family time. Now, nothing ever shuts down. Kind of exhausting. 😦
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