Black Friday: A Guide to Smart Shopping on the Busiest Shopping Day of the Year

Every year the stores put on their best customer service skills, hire the extra personnel to stock the shelves and fire up the extra cash registers to get ready for the biggest shopping event of the year. At corporate level, they have devised the best advertisement campaigns and stocked the warehouses to the roof on all the newest products. This day comes with great anticipation for both the shopper and the stores; it is actually like the night before Christmas.

If you participate in the shopping experience you know that there is a lot of stress and anticipation for the shopper too. Here is a simple plan that we use around the office and with family members that has made us the most productive shoppers in the black Friday shopping crowd. We use a teamwork approach to cover more ground in the stores. This plan will take planning and cooperation from all members.

The team must have the same goal in mind, so you must plan this out carefully. Here is your step by step plan for the most productive shopping experience: (1) assemble your team, team members must know they are a crucial part of a common goal, they must be motivated and ready to work for the entire group, (2) gather the advertisements, paper and internet sources should be considered when pulling together this very important part of the plan, (3) assemble your team to plan the attack, (4) put together lists and assign them to the appropriate team member, team members should have a working knowledge of what they are shopping for and have general knowledge of who the gift is for, each member should have a list of the individuals that they are shopping for to remind them of sizes, likes and dislikes, age groups, etc.

Now that you have your team assembles, the advertisements are gathered and the lists are written and distributed, there is one more small detail that is very important. Your team must know the general layout of the store, time is money, saving money that is, your team must be able to cover all areas and products on the list and the sooner you get out of one store, the sooner you get to move on to the next. One team member can draw out the floor plans, copy and distribute them during your meeting.

Some other items tips for consideration: (1) Getting everything home, we take two vehicles, one for passengers and one for cargo. A member of the team with a mini van will be a great asset. A van will ensure that your items are secure as you move from store to store, you can lock it up. (2) string tag bags, by giving individual members of your team different colors of string they can easily tie them to the top of the handle on the bag for easy identification when unloading the many bags that you purchased that day.

Some things you can't control: (1) Parking will always be an issue on the biggest shopping day of the year, no way around this one except to leave early or at least have your cargo vehicle leave earlier so that you can get to it faster and move on to the next store (2) other shoppers attitudes, unfortunately everyone handles stress in different ways, you will run into your aggressive shoppers that push, shove and have little disregard for the others around them, expect this and devise a strategy to deal with it (3) get a babysitter, children can be hurt in some of these mad situations, crowd pushing and they often get overwhelmed by the whole experience.

You can also shop online this will save yourself a lot of headaches and stress, use this same strategy. Search for the best prices and delivery dates of items.

Have fun and enjoy the experience, it is once a year.