Shopping after Black Friday instead
We’ve all seen the horrific pictures and videos online, on which people are becoming discount-hungry, coupon-empowered monsters, and harm each other for their next, most of the time unnecessary LED TV. Watching these moments made us wonder, whether there are better periods to time the annual shopping experience. Spoilers ahead - there are indeed.
Origins of the term date back to 1966, when people started Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving. In such cases, large discounts and promotions are introduced in the trade in order to attract as many buyers as possible. It has grown so much by now that people are already preparing for Black Friday in advance, planning what they want to buy, putting together a strategy for shopping, and even taking a day off for that particular Friday.
While shopping for Chrismas can be made during Black Friday to achieve lower prices for the must-haves, but this period is all about impulse buying, luring in customers shop products and services they never intended to.
Many shops, even large chains have been uncovered to increase their prices high up before applying the standard 30-70% Black Friday discounts. This cheesy tactic often results in many misled buyers, thinking the longed items are truly discounted and are available at a once-in-a-lifetime price.
Shopping after Christmas
The after-Christmas period might catch the shops with their stocks down, but many shops already plan ahead with their orderings to serve customers, who got gift cards as a present. On the other hand, shops are often forced to sell their products much cheaper. They have to give the goods cheaper if they want to get rid of their stocks (keep in mind that storage is also expensive).
Between the two holidays (Christmas and New Year’s Eve), and from the beginning of January, the usual post-Christmas sale start. The usual rate of discount is 50-70% and you can achieve even more if you find an item with a manufacturing defective, or if you are willing to buy the showcased ones.
There are the seasonal products that come with a humble price tag: Christmas chocolate or gingerbread cookies are considered off-season in January, so sellers want to get rid of them at a face rate. An exception being the Santa Claus chocolate figurine that can be easily re-packaged as the Easter Bunny.
One of the biggest advantages of post-Christmas shopping compared to Black Friday is the lack of stressed-out people, whom you need to compete and battle to get a coffee machine for the granny. Shopping malls are at least half-empty, so you can have a real, quasi meditative shopping experience instead of preparing with a battle plan on how to face Cerberus himself.
A disadvantage of the after-Christmas period might be the stuttering online shopping, especially the low stocks and slow delivery.
There are a few things you can do to enhance your savings further:
- prepare for Black Friday by choosing the necessary products in advance
- use a price tracker to gather knowledge of their true price tags
- buy on Black Friday only online and focus on the products that are truly discounted
- have an in-person shopping experience during the post-Christmas period to get undisturbed inspiration on-site.