Any tips for 'black Friday' online shopping?

**khaski** · 09-29-2011, 03:09 PM

I went out to stores last year, having skipped it for years past, and found, well, it's just NOT my cup of tea...at all. Got some of what I planned on at Toys R Us, walked into Walmart, decided standing in line for 2-3 hours wasn't worth it to check out, headed home, finished up online, got -most- of what I wanted at about 2 a.m. online. I have to drive 1+ hours to get to the main shopping area, hate crowds, feel overwhelmed trying to find items in a chaotic packed store in the middle of the night after fighting for parking and standing in line for hours to even get in the door. I did miss out on smaller cheaper items though. This year I'm just gonna stay up and shop online....any hints? For instance, does it make sense to fill up my cart half an hour before the sale starts, then checkout once it begins (will prices change over)? Are most items still in stock 2 or 3 hours after sale started online, making it worthwhile to skip super crowded slow websites at sale start time? Not planning on any big electronic purchases this year. Any hints from the 'pros' appreciated, already vowed to skip the hassle in stores, but still hoping to do well online. Thanks!

**Contrary Housewife** · 09-29-2011, 06:11 PM

Last year a lot of online places seemed to be doing daily deals, or weekly deals. And many of the "Friday" deals were actually good all week, into the first days of December.

I would suggest, if you plan on doing a lot of online shopping that you scope out places beforehand and make a list of web site bookmarks. Expect web servers to be slow right at midnight and probably a couple hours afterward. Shop at 4 am and you should be fine. Or just relax with an egg nog and a backup plan the following morning.

**Momto5RN** · 09-29-2011, 10:11 PM

patience - getting up early - etc
if its an item in high demands it may be better to pay a few extra bucks a few weeks early to make sure you can get it . JMO

when i do black friday shopping its usually to clothes stores that give out a free 20 or a GC worth 10-100$ to the first so many - then i use coupons they put out for 10 off 25 ( not counting AM specials ) and hit the clearance racks for clothes deals for my family .

last year a did a little at kohls and got an extra 20% off shopping early and free shipping etc - that was nice lol

i dont go anywhere near walmart or toy stores or electronics stores .

**vm9799** · 09-30-2011, 11:48 AM

last year we were planning to get our 2 teenagers ipod touches for christmas.......target had them marked down on black friday and each came with a $20 gc. so on thanksgiving morning we were online just looking at all the specs to be sure we knew what we were getting and they had them marked down to an even better price (including the extra $20 gc!), so we saved ourselves a long cold wait and just ordered them in our pjs online on thanksgiving day.

i'm actually hoping to make this the first year we DON'T head out at the wee hours of the morning and planning many more online purchases. now that the kids are older, we're just not finding the deals that we used to.....and certainly nothing awesome enough to sit out in the freezing cold for hours on end.

**ncarr** · 10-01-2011, 01:09 PM

A lot of the good deals online are on "Cyber Monday"-- the Monday following Black Friday

**Ponderer** · 10-03-2011, 10:52 AM

Last year I headed out for a coffee and was at Lowe's at 5 am. All I cared about was $5 dollar fresh wreathes....at that price I got 5 for across the front of my house and I bought one for my neighbor. After that I headed home happy. Would have been boring for most but for me it was perfect. I hope they have wreathes again this year!!

**butterflywatcher** · 10-03-2011, 12:55 PM

I bought a few Black Friday deals online last year on Thanksgiving day! If I remember correctly, I think Best Buy was one of the stores that had early online sales for the same things that were in stores on Friday.

**ediesbeads** · 10-05-2011, 08:25 PM

I bought some online deals on Thanksgiving day, and I also got up at about 4 am on Friday, did some online shopping, then headed to the stores about 5. I got most of what I wanted at Walmart. We hit the PJ and sweatshirts and stuff first as that's more needs than just wants! We hit the toys next and get what's left, then we see if there's anything left in good dvd's or game deals. It's usually picked over by the time I get to that stuff.

I usually just hit Walmart and get home to have leftover pie with the rest of the family for breakfast

. Sometimes I head out again after breakfast if there are some deals I like that aren't just good till 10 am or whatever.

**steelergal** · 10-06-2011, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by ncarr

A lot of the good deals online are on "Cyber Monday"-- the Monday following Black Friday

I also agree with this! I am up super early for the American Girl cyber monday sales! I try to be up as soon as it is posted because usually by 7 o'clock Eastern time a lot of the really good deals are gone!

**Spirit Deer** · 10-06-2011, 11:45 PM

Not all places let you leave stuff in your shopping cart for very long. Some do, some don't. So even if you place something in your cart, it may be gone if you haven't bought it within thirty minutes or whatever limit they've put on it.

Us+Black Friday shopping=Ain't happ'nin. One of the very best things we love about the invention of the internet is we just click and a big brown truck comes right to the door. Hard to beat that for a great shopping experience.