Our Top 16 Survival Tips For Black Friday Shopping

Do you hit the stores on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving?  Are you one of those people that love the thrill of shopping that day?  If so, we have found kindred spirits because both Mr & Mrs The Clever Couple are Black Friday shoppers.  You’ll find us among the masses of people on that crazy day shopping our feeters off as we like to say.

A little background….we have been together since high school and our first Black Friday shopping was probably in 1985.  Since then, aside from when we lived in Scotland and the year we were married because we were married the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we have shopped every single Black Friday.  We love it, seriously – the two of us enjoy Christmas time immensely and we love to buy people gifts.  We also love the hustle and bustle and the overall good cheer that abounds that day.  I know, not everyone is filled with good cheer, but we have never been trampled in a mass crowed entering a store or gotten into a fight over an action figure so we think basically people are good.

Want to know our personal time tested tips for a happy Black Friday?  We’ll share, and you can pick and choose if any work for you.

• At least 1 day before scour the ads to determine what store you want to start at and what items you are after.  Realized that the $10.99 television that is on the front page is going to be next to impossible to score unless there is divine intervention.  Be realistic and put thought into the store you decide to go to first.  Once you determine where you will go first, plan out your others stops in order of importance according to what is on sale.  For instance, every year we buy the nieces and nephews pajamas as part of their Christmas presents.  (Yes, boring but it is a tradition and only a small part of their gift from us…..and they run and put them on as soon as they open them so it has become a fun family thing.).  We know that pajamas are not going to be the hot item on every person’s Black Friday list so the store that has the best price on pajamas may be our 3rd or 4th stop after we nab the other “hotter” items we are after.

The kiddos in their new pj’s, quite a few years ago. We always take a photo of them in their new jammies!

• Make a list of what time the stores open
• Wake up early, and be ready to go.  Have your car’s gas tank full so you don’t have to monkey around with filling up when you could be shopping!  We usually get up around 3 or 4 (we live 30+ minutes away from any sort of shopping so we have to allot drive time).
• Wear comfy shoes, and dress in layers.  Even though it is usually frigid when we enter the store in the early morning we don’t like to wear a bulky coat because we end up having to carry it around with us once inside.  We leave our coats in the car and make a quick dash into the stores!
• Take all the ads with  you in the car.  We have learned this the hard way – be sure to take all the ads with you because if you need to regroup your shopping list or “plan of attack” as we like to call it, it is helpful to have the ads in front of you instead of at home on the table!  (Kind of like our “always take your coupon binder” rule!).
• Play Christmas music.  Simple enough, but it really gets us in the mood for shopping when we hear Bing Crosby come on singing White Christmas or Deck the Halls
• Have fun – don’t get stressed out.  Yes, you will be waiting in lines and there will be oodles of people everywhere.  If you do not like crowds, lines or frenzied shoppers – stay home.  We’d also recommend leaving the kiddos at home too, when they are stressed and crabby that takes the joy out of the shopping for everyone.
• If you are at a store looking for something that is in their ad and the shelves are empty, put on your detective hat and look around other areas of the store for additional inventory.  This is especially true for stores like Walmart, Target, KMart, etc – they tend to space out inventory for “hot” items in center aisles as well as in the normal area to help with crowding.
• The larger the store, the larger the lines.  Watch the lines and see how they are moving because many times we have been able to end up in a smaller line or a faster line.  Watch the cashier’s actions and see if they seem experienced or not.  If they appear to be fairly new, today is not the day for you to be in their line.  You want someone experienced, fast and friendly.  Also, check the departments themselves for check out options.  At Target we saved oodles of time last year by checking out in the electronics area!
• Tag team waiting in line.  Once we have scoped out the store and nabbed the items we were after initially from our list we get in line.  Usually Mr TCC will stand in line and Mrs TCC will leave the line to look at other items in the store.  Since we know actually getting to the check out will take some time this is a good way to accomplish more shopping and cut down wasted time.  It helps to be sure both the line holder and the shopper have cell phones so you can be kept updated with how much time you have left to shop before the line holder is up to check out.
• As for gift boxes!  Many retail stores like Macys, Kohl’s, Younkers, JC Penny, etc provide free gift boxes for your purchases.  Take advantage of this so that you don’t end up having to buy gift boxes when you go to wrap your gifts.
• Eat.  Many people get crabby when they don’t eat, and we are included.  Since we wake up so very early we usually find ourselves looking for lunch around 10:00 am.  Don’t worry about finding a place that is open – they all are!  It’s the only day you will find the food court at the mall full of people eating subs & Chinese food at 10:00 am!
• Save your receipts!  It never fails that we end up with at least 1 item that we need to return from this shopping day.  We like to keep a large envelope in the car and put all receipts in it as we shop.  This way they are all in 1 spot and easy to find.  
• Regroup.  Usually after lunch around noon we like to sit down and take a break over a nice coffee or soda.  During this break we pull out our shopping list and make another list of each person we buy for and what we have for them at this point.  We buy for a lot of people (which we love doing), and we are very methodical about sticking to a budgeted amount for each person.  Keeping track of what we have spent on each person helps us control overspending.  It also helps us realize what we have left to buy.  See example:

•  Be grateful for the items you do find.  Most of the time we do not finish our shopping on Black Friday but we do put quite a dent in it.
• It’s OK to wait – years ago it seemed the really good deals were only to be had on Black Friday but now more and more stores are duplicating the Black Friday sales throughout the holiday season, some as soon as the following day.  If you would prefer to shop when it is a little bit less busy then wait.

We hope sharing our tips in some small way will help you with your Black Friday shopping.  We feel so blessed to be able to enjoy shopping together and to share the magic of finding that “perfect gift” for each person on our list.  We never buy a gift just to cross a name off the list, we put our heart and soul into making sure the recipient is going to enjoy the gift.  That is part of the joy of the holiday for us, and we hope for you too!

Happy shopping!