Best Friday-After-Thanksgiving Sales in Greensboro, North Carolina Part 1

The busiest shopping day of the holiday season is the day after Thanksgiving. Stores put forth their best sales on that day to draw in the crowds. Except for retail, a lot of people have the day off and they use it to shop. If you want to get the most for your shopping dollar and your gas mileage, you need to come up with a shopping strategy. Here are a few tips for procuring those "must have" Christmas gift items in Greensboro, North Carolina. So, get a good night's sleep and be ready to rock-and-roll at first light.

Devise a game plan. Stores send out sale papers in the Thanksgiving Day edition of the Greensboro News and Record. Decide what stores are offering the best deals on the items you need to purchase. Every major store in the city will have a circular in the newspaper. If you are not an early bird, study the circulars for the stores opening at seven o'clock or later. Most electronic sales, though, will start at six o'clock in the morning.

Find fellow shoppers. Next, find out who is up to the shopping challenge. During the Thanksgiving holiday, my family comes to visit. With me, my mom, my husband, my two sisters, and my brother-in-law on board, we can cover a lot of shopping ground. The six of us divide into groups of two and hit the road. This way, there's a greater chance that we will be successful in getting the items on our lists. Before leaving the house, know where everyone is going. Keep the cell phones on to contact each other for shopping updates.

Clean out your car. You will be picking up a lot of things, so make sure that you have ample room for the purchases. If televisions, computers, or furniture are on your list, make sure one of your crew has an SUV or a van big enough to transport it all. There's nothing worse than making a purchase and then not being able to get it home. Believe me, I know. It happened to me and my mother one year.

Leave the children at home. They are adorable but they will only slow you down. Besides, have you experienced the pushing and shoving that goes on in stores during Black Friday? The kids are safer at home. There's no sense getting into a fight with another shopper who almost runs over the kids with a shopping cart trying to reach a bargain.

Pay attention to the sales circulars. Most stores offer special door buster sales during certain hours of the morning. If the items are purchased after those hours, they are regular price. This is true of Garden Ridge, Wal-Mart, JC Penney, Sears, Kohl's and others.

Pay attention at checkout. Some stores have special registers for cash only or credit cards only to help shoppers get out of the store quickly. Be aware of this. Standing in the wrong line could slow down your progress. Also, check the counter registers in different departments like jewelry or sporting goods. If you ask, they will allow you to check out there instead of standing in line at the front of the store.

Know where to go- Wendover Avenue. In Greensboro, Wal-mart has four stores, Target has three, K-mart has one, Kohl's has two, and so on. You get the idea. But, there is only one location where all of these stores can be found within a quarter of a mile radius of each other. This shopping hub is located on West Wendover Avenue. Any shopper wanting to reach a number of stores without a lot of driving will end up here. Traffic in this area will quickly become congested, but that's why your group needs to divide and conquer.

To reach West Wendover Avenue from Interstate 40 West, take the Wendover West exit and bear to the right. The third stoplight is Bridford Parkway. Taking a left onto Bridford Parkway leads you to the K-mart superstore, Circuit City, and Hamrick's. Turning right onto Bridford Parkway leads to Wal-mart on the right side of the street and Target, Kohl's, Hecht's, and various other stores in the shopping center on the left.

Know where to go-Friendly Center. Friendly Center is a large outdoor mall in the center of Greensboro. Friendly Center contains stores like Hecht's, Sears, Macy's, Old Navy, Bath and Body Works, and Belk's. Most of these stores have sale papers for an after Thanksgiving sale. Old Navy and Bath and Body Works have great sales. The stores in Friendly Center usually open around seven o'clock. If you want a little less pushing and shoving and you don't need a new television or desktop computer, head here for bargains.

Driving is not a problem at Friendly Center. There are trolleys that will pick you up and drop you off anywhere on the campus. Policemen are also on hand to direct traffic throughout the campus. The trolleys are free and convenient if you have a lot of shopping to do.

To get to Friendly Center from Interstate 40, take the Wendover East exit. Drive along Wendover Avenue until you see signs for Friendly Avenue. The exit will be on the right. Make a left at the stoplight. This is Friendly Avenue. The shopping center will be on your right.

Know where to go-Four Seasons Mall. Four Seasons Mall has three floors of stores that participate in after Thanksgiving sales. The mall itself opens early because Kaybee toy store opens at six o'clock in the morning. The year that Yugioh cards were popular, the line at the toy store stretched half way around the level. They do offer unique bargains on video games and toys for younger children. Kaybee toy store is small so if you can find the same bargain at Toys 'R Us, go there. The store is bigger and offers more of a variety.

Check for sales at other venues. Study the entire newspaper on Thanksgiving Day. Sometimes, hotels will hold leather or jewelry sales in their conference rooms. There is usually at least one leather sale held in Greensboro. Full and three-quarter length coats and bomber jackets are sold for half price. The location changes from year to year but will be well advertised in the paper. I've found great deals for family Christmas gifts.

Greensboro is a great city for shopping on Black Friday. There are a lot of choices of places to go depending on what kind of shopping you want to do.