1. Make a List
Make a list of gift recipients. Assess how much money during Black Friday "should" be spent. Move this dollar figure as low as you can.The economy is bad, money is precious, and people are not as inclined to use their credit cards as they once were to cover spending gaps. Even netbooks are pricey. This is the perfect year to "reduce" spending per item without apology. Many mutually obligated gift exchanges are based in habit. Making a list narrows what goods apply to your gift giving, and reduces the likelihood of being overwhelmed.
2. Stick to the Math
Once a Black Friday budget had been worked out, the hard part is over. With a price ceiling on items, scanning any store for the items in your gift price range is easy. If you can get twenty $5 cans of three way popcorn to give, and you have twenty gift recipients on your list, snap them up. If your Black Friday shopping budget is ten dollars per person, you can add a gift certificate for a movie rental or something else. If you have a long list, look for mulitple discounts. Three netbooks might get a cash volume or credit discount. Add up department store incentives to spend more and get an additional discount off.
3. Gender Bias
When in doubt, try gender based gift giving. If twenty dollars is your Black Friday gift shopping price limit for Stan and Helen, get Helen $10 worth of spa candles and get Stan a book on his favorite sports franchise team. If you split the money down the middle, you are still committing to your budget and giving the pair each something to open. His and hers flannel shirts, matching pairs of ski socks, or sport sunglasses or instant cameras can make "gag" gifts with practical uses. Make sure women do the shopping for women and men do the shopping for men. Don't assume a woman doesn't want a netbook.
4. Stay away from Schlock
Those calendars, cookie jars and kitschy items you fell in love with at the store for the price? Black Friday is designed to make schlock look good. Don't go out of your way to disappoint your gift recipients. Shop smart and if it isn't genuinely cute, fits their house colors, or would be something you might own for yourself, think twice. Black Friday lines will be full of people second guessing what they did or didn't grab. Closets get stuffed with items nobody wants to give or get. Stay out of "general merchandise" areas stuffed with seasonal imports that won't last or don't appeal to your gift recipients. Don't buy the wannabe netbook when the real one is practically the same price with financing.
5. Scan the Black Friday Newspaper
Review the paper and be reasonable about how much ground you can cover. Black Friday parking lots, coffee shop lines, and gas station waits will be triple what you expect. Remember, higher prices items will more likely be still there after "daybreak" hours. Limits are set to some netbook discount sales. Divide newspapers by creative geography. Black Friday is betting on you not being able to get everywhere by ten a.m. One person can do the elite department store, one shopper can do the discount mall stores, one person can hit the specials at the electronics store, and another person can hit the drugstore for specials.
6. Use Credit Carefully
If you have on credit card that gets air miles or cash back credits, make sure the bulk of purchases make a double benefit. Black Friday may be the first day in a long time when consumers feel opening a new credit card account is a good idea. Is the netbook for sale anywhere else at the same price? Try not to open new credit lines or credit card charge accounts unless you would have committed to paying cash anyway and the credit account is the only way to obtain the additional discount. Determine which stores will execute price matching for a netbook sale. Closing the account by cash payment should have no penalty, but check with the credit department before charging. Black Friday deals can make it worthwhile, however.
7. Don't be a Snob
The best deals for Christmas this year on Black Friday may be discount and neighborhood chain stores who planned months ago for holiday shopping. To compete with Black Friday dollars being spent on the other side of town, chain stores and drugstores may have dollars off or bulk money spending rewards inside the store. Many corner drugstores today have equal buying power, merchandising and access to the gifts and items medium to low level mall stores have. Look for netbook acessories where you get dollars off coupons in your email. Netbok accessories like wireless mouse items, mouser pads, flash cards and memory cards might work. Every netbook owner likes new headphones. If giving a cheap digital camera, flannel lap blanket or cozy pair of slippers to everyone on your list is what you want to do, buy the Black Friday deals with incentives and get the rewards. Go to nearby stores if there is a buying limit.
8. Stay in the Spirit
It's fairly evident when men get the great gifts on Christmas Day and the women get things like aprons, towels, and pillowcases that something went awry. Gift giving is hard because a lot of hidden feelings, attitudes, and prejudices emerge. Black Friday can make it easy to buy the wrong gift. Men should avoid buying lingerie and provocative book or video material, women should avoid anything like personal grooming or intimate apparel as well for the opposite sex.These kinds of gifts can backfire easily. Even if there is a stack of pornographic DVD's on sale or beefcake calendars, ignore them. It's just not appropriate. What seems funny in the store when you're tired can fall flat in front of Aunt Martha and the kids.
