OH MY GAWD! ITS BLACK FRIDAY!!

Yes. Yes it is. If you’re a member of CISA, there’s a good chance you’ve traveled 13568 kilometers to shop in America on this holy grail of sales that you had only heard of.

While Black Friday is a great experience, the concept of sales on Black Friday is slowly dying, and it is no longer the best time to shop (Lifehacker). You don’t really need to read the rest of this article if you read the Lifehacker one.

Noooooooooooooooo!

I get it. You’ve been dreaming of this day forever. That new TV (or winter jacket) you wanted for so cheap. While it sounds like a really great event because everyone talks about it, it really isn’t. Most deals are either not that great, or its not worth staying up that late in the night and driving so far to grab a $60 discount on a product off its usual sales price, because it probably sold for a similar price on other days too. Many times, retailers will slash their deals only to exaggerate how expensive the item was to begin with.

So what do I do?

1. Go to a mall on Black Friday if its your first time being here for the festival. There’s some things in life which are really great the first time you do them. Black Friday is one of them. Watching Prem Ratan Dhan Payo? Not one of them.
2. Decide what you want to buy, and if you really need it.
3. Research its prices and find out if anyone is offering a sale on the item.
   1. Track prices ahead of time: Use a price tracking tool like Red Laser,CamelCamelCamel, or InvisibleHand to check the price history of an item. Camelcamelcamel, for example, will tell you how low that item’s price has been in the past several years. This way, you can see if the Black Friday price you’re getting is really a good one.
   2. Check manufacturer prices: CNET recommends heading to the manufacturer’s web site to see what the MSRP of an item really is. Many times, retailers will slash their deals only to exaggerate how expensive the item was to begin with.
   3. Check websites like CNET, Kinja Deals and Slick Deals to find the right deals. On Slickdeals people will review a deal and let you know if it really is a deal, and also review the product at the same time.
4. Buy the item.
   1. If you’re buying in store and don’t need something right away, ask the sales clerk if they can ship it to your house for free. This means you can shop more without running out of hands to carry things!

Sooooooooooo

What this article really is trying to tell you is that you could score a great item at a great price on any day of the year, if you knew how to look for it (using the same steps as above)