As youβre flipping through the stack of glossy ads stuffed in your Thanksgiving Day newspaper like the overflowing turkey that will soon grace your table, youβre likely having dΓ©jΓ vu.
Yep, that 60-inch Samsung Smart TV is $648 at Walmart, but thereβs only three per store so youβd better skip dessert and snag a spot in line before the doors open at 6 p.m. Turkey Day. And while youβre there, check out the DVDs: $1.96! Sweet! Going to have to take great-nephew Aaden to dumpster-dive in that big cardboard box in the center aisle to find the prize at the bottom.
Black Friday shopping is about more than getting the best deals: Itβs about winning. Itβs about having a plan. When the security guard, looking grumpy and wishing he hadnβt eaten that post-dinner piece of apple pie with a side of turkey and mashed potatoes, swings open the doors, the race is on. You need a strategy.
Hereβs ours, fine-tuned over 20 years of pre-dawn, midnight runs to all the usual big-box suspects. Weβve scored that 70-inch Vizio flatscreen from Walmart for under $700 on Thanksgiving Day and we were the last one in line for that 1-cent Samsung Galaxy phone from Samβs Club when the warehouse store opened just after sunrise on Black Friday.
Here are five things you can do to get five great gifts on Black Friday:
Clip your coupons: JC Penney, Kohlβs, Macyβs, Bath & Body Works and other major retailers started sending their customer loyalty coupons a couple weeks ago, so dig into that pile of mail stacked on your counter. When we got them, we put them in the glove box. I got duplicates of Bath & Body Works this year. Sweet! Iβll use the free signature-collection item coupons to get lotion for my colleague Kathleen Allen (I hope sheβs not reading this!) and a stocking stuffer for my oldest daughter. The store usually reduces the price of its popular Wallflower plug-ins to $6 for two β regularly double that price β so Iβll stock up for the winter.
Send in reconnaissance: Target has the second generation of Solo by Beats headphones for $119.99 and a sweet deal on a Nikon camera β $500 off! β so weβre sending nephews Dez and Tanner to get a spot in line. They are big, hulking, lineman-sized guys; no one will say a thing when we saunter over and stand next to them 45 minutes later. And when the doors open at 6 Thanksgiving Day β weβre thinking we might have to skip opening kickoff of the Colts-Steelers game β weβll let them make that mad dash to the electronics department while we check out the $8 XBox and PlayStation video games.
Designate a line walker: Pick one of you to stand in the check-out line right when you get in the door. The line will already be 40, 50 deep. And while the rest of you shop, that person will hold the place in line. Weβve waited an hour or more at Kohlβs in a line that snaked from the registers to the back of the store. It will be worth the wait; Kohlβs has a $99.99 doorbuster Fitbit Alta β it comes with $30 Kohlβs cash! β and bath towels for $2.99 apiece, instead of $9.99. When youβre done, switch places with the designated line walker and by the time they finish, youβre up to the register. Efficiency matters, because you have a lot of retail ground to cover before the sun comes up.
Purchase, pack: Never walk around with heavy shopping bags. After each trip to the register, make a trip to the car. Designate a runner or switch off between buys, which we find to be the fairest way. I usually pick the duty because itβs a chance to get some fresh air and it helps ease the feeling of claustrophobia that comes from being stuck in a crowded store of stressed-out, bargain-starved shoppers. With empty hands, youβll be able to grab one or two rolling Pinnacle hardside suitcases for $40, any size, at JC Penney and a pair of Dockers slippers for dad for $13.99.
Save the mall for last: We usually stop at home to empty the car, fire up the Keurig and brew a cup or two of bold coffee, maybe nibble a piece of Thanksgiving pie with whipped cream for energy and then head to the mall. We just never feel that sense of urgency at the mall that we do from the big-box stores, maybe because the mall doesnβt have a 42-inch Toshiba 4K Ultra HD flatscreen with built-in Chromecast for $199 like Best Buy.
It will be light and starting to warm up by the time we get to the mall and head straight for the Dillardβs perfume counters.
My womb-mate Marcy is a perfume aficionado. She is so familiar with the fragrance profiles of the biggest names in the industry that she can tell you the designer just from whiffing it. And her list includes a bottle of cologne for the five guys in her life, perfume for the six girls.
She will easily drop $700 or $800 on Black Friday, and the ladies at the perfume counter know her by name. You can bet when we stroll in, they rush over. And they pull out all the stops, including the famous βfree gift with purchase,β ranging from a tote bag emblazoned with the designer name or a bag of free perfume samples.
Sometimes the offer is a gift set with lotion and body wash or travel-sized perfume/cologne for the price of a bottle.
My sister usually gifts those items to her employees or includes them in the holiday gift baskets she gives to needy families in her west Phoenix neighborhood.
One last piece of advice, my fellow Black Friday shoppers: Take time to laugh. Itβs confession time: I donβt go Black Friday shopping for the deals. I go for the laughs I get from people-watching. People do crazy, hilarious βSaturday Night Liveβ-worthy things in the throes of bargain shopping euphoria.
I joke when I say Iβll toss my wonderfully bright and funny nephew Aaden into Walmartβs sofa-sized cardboard DVD display to dumpster-dive. But there will be someone out there whoβll do just that. And it will be funny watching the kid dive down on all fours, digging through layers of plastic DVD cases and coming up with the prize.
And then some big adult will snatch the movies from his little hands and heβll cry, his parents will yell, and someone will get the bright idea that their kid could do better, so theyβll toss him into the box, too. And Iβll be the one in the background laughing until tears stream down my face.
