Top Ten Tips for a Stress-Free Successful Black Friday Shopping Experience

To have a stress-free successful Black Friday shopping experience, the day must be well researched and planned. Retailers mix things up each year for those of us who have made this day an annual tradition. They attempt to hide their sales and doorbusters until the last possible moment, some even waiting to run advertisements until Black Friday morning itself! They open at different times and offer different incentives, and change these from year to year. So what is an inexperienced Black Friday shopper to do?

Follow the advice of a seasoned Black Friday shopper. Find ways around the curveballs retailers throw our way. Learn how to plan out the day, stay focused and avoid stresses. Best of all, get all the inside secrets of successful Black Friday shopping.

Follow these top ten tips, and have a stress-free successful Black Friday shopping experience.

1. Online Sales Spoilers

The day after Halloween, Black Friday sales ads slowly begin leaking out. Whether it be employees at the advertising agency or at the store's headquarters, someone manages to leak this information. There are several websites which specialize in Black Friday sales spoilers, all of which are happy to share the leaked information with it's members.

Find one of these websites and join their service. You may be asked to register by providing a little personal information for their records, but you will be getting a valuable service. (Please see additional resources below to get you started).

Dependent upon each website's rules, a member may post detailed sales information or a rumor they have heard about a specific item. Individual members are usually allowed to comment to the postings. Other websites only allow the administrators to post the Black Friday sales information, thus controlling the quality of the information.

Most sales spoiler websites send email alerts when another store's Black Friday advertisement has been added. I recommend that you sign up for these alerts.

As of November fourth, the Black Friday sales advertisements for these stores have been posted online: Ace Hardware, Kmart, Office Max and Sears. Walmart has found a way around everyone this year and released to the public that it will cut prices on over ten thousand items prior to Black Friday, and experts agree that an early price war should be the result.

2. Coupons

Stores will send out coupons weeks prior to Black Friday. It is always wise to check the expiration date, and if they expire after Black Friday, put them aside to use on that day. Some retailers will do this in hopes of enticing customers to make their holiday purchases before Black Friday, with the thinking that people will use the coupons immediately. These retailers may even provide the coupons alongside a tempting sale. Most seasoned Black Friday shoppers feel those coupons are more valuable, and offer better returns, if put aside for Black Friday.

Coupons are used frequently in Black Friday sales advertisements, so make sure you do not overlook them in your excitement over the deals.

Check your favorite stores' websites. Most retailers have special coupon offers found only on their websites. You will also find coupons on dealtaker.com, which is listed below in the additional resources below.

3. Printed Advertisements

Retailers are competing for your business and hiding their plans from their rivals, so everyone's Black Friday advertisements come on different days. The best way to cover your bases is to purchase your local paper everyday, beginning on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Stores used to place their advertisements on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but some have begun running their ads on Thanksgiving Day and even on Black Friday.

Always carry the advertisements with you into the stores. Some stores will match advertised prices, others will have the wrong price marked on their own merchandise. Avoid a handful of stress and just take them along.

4. Grab a Partner

It may sound more like a competition than a day of shopping, but tag-teaming your purchases will make the best use of your time. Doorbuster sales are only offered during the first few hours of shopping on Black Friday, so you will want to take advantage of as many as possible.

If you are shopping with a friend, one of you can hit the toy aisle while the other buys the electronics. Since those items will be very specific, due to detailed advertisement offers, you will know exactly what you are purchasing and the exact costs ahead of time. This makes tackling Black Friday with a partner the way to go.

If you are shopping with your spouse or significant other, you may even be able to shop in different stores, maximizing your time and efforts.

Always buy clothing last in each store, as the items you can divide between you are the ones that run out first.

5. Make Lists

The first few hours of Black Friday is not a time to wander around looking for gift ideas. Doorbuster hours are best spent making specific purchases. It is extremely important to make lists, even if you are not a list kind of person.

First, take each sales advertisement, whether online or printed, and make a list of the purchases you are going to make in each store. Make a second list of the items you might buy in each store. At the top of each list, write the store's name, freebies offered and doorbuster hours.

If you have a partner which will divide up the purchases with you, create separate lists for the purchases they will make on your behalf.

6. Map it Out

After the lists are completed, it is important to map out a plan of attack. In what order are you going to visit each store?

You need to consider the location of each store, the time it opens, the items which are in limited quantity and what free items are being offered.

If an item I want is in limited quantity, I do not bother with it on Black Friday. Some stores allow their employees to put their purchases aside, further lowering the amount available to the public. Places such as KB Toys, which always has a limited quantity of a major toy at a deep discount, is not even on my places to stop that day because I am not willing to camp out overnight to be the first person in line to get that toy. If you are determined to make a purchase of a limited quantity purchase, the best chance of success is to make that your only priority and get to the store at least two or three hours before opening.

Fewer stores are offering freebies to the first several hundred customers in their doors; however, you should be able to count on a free snowglobe ornament from JC Penny. If you want that free item, you should be in line thirty to sixty minutes before the store opens.

I usually go to the major department stores (JC Penny, Sears, Bon-Ton) at the mall first, then go to the stores in the outlying area (Kmart, Walmart, Target), and finally return to the mall to visit the smaller shops (Disney, Old Navy, Spencers). This plan of attack has worked well for several years and allows me to maximize on the freebies.

Map out your plan of attack based upon the staggering opening times of all your stops, putting your priority stops first, while keeping in mind the driving times between locations. Place your lists in order of stops and number them so that you do not have to think about it again.

7. Rest, Prepare & Eat

Prepare an oversized purse or knapsack with all your necessities. Pack bottled water and snacks. Do not forget your lists and advertisements. You may even want to pack a few tissues and hand sanitizer as custodians cannot always keep up with the bathroom crowds that early in the morning.

On your way home from grandma's house on Thanksgiving, fill up your gas tank.

Having mapped out your day and prepared your lists, you no longer need to worry or think about what you are going to do. Let everything go from your mind and get at least a few hours of sleep.

8. Decide to Have Fun & Go With the Flow

Generally, the people who are crazy enough to get up for the doorbuster sales are happy and organized people. Standing around in the cold waiting for the first store to open, you will find conversations with strangers flowing. A fun energy flows with everyone laughing and talking eagerly about their plans for the day. This is the polite crowd, not the hectic crowd you see on the news.

The hectic Black Friday crowd usually shows up just before eleven that morning. These are the people who are catching the tail-end of a few doorbuster sales and are rushing to make their purchases in time. Having been out since five in that morning, you will suddenly notice a change in the vibe. The trick is not to be pulled into that group. You have your list and you know exactly what you are there to buy. There is no need to allow stress to creep in.

Once you are no longer enjoying yourself, it is time to go home. You can always take a nap and come back out later.

9. Arrive Too Early

Whatever time you feel you need to be at the store, be there earlier. As a rule, expect to wait in line for an hour for the first store to open. If it is a toy store, plan to arrive two or more hours before opening.

10. Be Home by Noon

Having followed these tips, you should be home around noon. You will be getting home when most shoppers are making their way to the stores. By getting up so early, you may have lost a couple hours of sleep, but now you can take a nap while the rest of the world shops.