Eight Reasons to Skip Black Friday "Sales"

Yahoo lists eight reasons to skip Black Friday "sales" as follows:

• You don't need any of it
• You can use the time better
• You won't get what you went for
• The Black Friday experts already have won the game
• You'll buy things you never intended to buy
• You'll forget to calculate the true cost
• That price might not be that great
• You can do it from home

You can read the post for more details if you like, but I thought posting this today was an apt way to spend the day after Thanksgiving. Those of us who aren't shopping today may actually be doing the "right" thing. ;-)

FYI -- this is probably my last post of the day. I'm doing my annual "clean your office" day today and I have a LOT to do! ;-)

Comments

[Lisa @ Cents To Save]

Reason # 5 is why I don't go out on Black Friday. I am about 85% done with my shopping and the remainder purchases are gift cards. (Which I am leary of anyway)

Back to reason #5... I tend to get caught up in the frenzy of the season and will buy something just because it is on sale.

I have some of these items from last year still in the box, never given as a gift. Probably destined for Ebay.

[Vincent Scordo]

Nice post. "Black Friday" and "CyberMonday" are self propagated shopping days and while there may be some bargains / percentage off items, I don't think it's worth stress, aggravations, etc. of heading out to shops.

[Nicki]

I concur. The frenzied mentality of shopping this weekend is the problem. People get caught up in the hype, in their emotions and just don't spend wisely. It takes quite a bit of self control to shop today :)

[a]

I skip the Black Friday sales because I really don't like the idea of waking up early, waiting in the cold and fighting crowds just to discover that everyone else has already beat me to the uber-discounted item I actually wanted.

And this year I'm stuck at work so I can use that as a legit excuse to not participate in the shopping madness. But on the other hand, I'm stuck at work....

[guinness416]

Not to mention that if you shop in Long Island, you may get trampled to death.

[Matt H]

Here's the story guinness416 was talking about: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/11/28/2008-11-28_worker_dies_at_long_island_walmart_after.html

I would add to that the unpleasantness of being out in the cold at 5 AM waiting for a store to open.

[myself]

Number 7 was evident at the one store I visited today. The "discounts" offered weren't worth the flyers that the employees handed out. Forking over a fat wad of cash to be eligible for a % off is not a bargain.

[MasterPo]

I agree. Never had a good experience trying to take part in Black Friday.

[F. Morana]

I never heard about it until very recently. Needless to say, it would be totally ridiculous if it weren't so tragic that people are so susceptible of being led around like a bunch of sheep.

[southernflyer]

Yesterday was the first year I didn't wake up early for sales. It was the first year I can remember there was nothing "cheap" that I really wanted. I drove by BestBuy at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving and over 50 people were already camping out. I knew most of them wouldn't get what they were waiting for when all was said and done.

I woke up late, went to lunch and Kohl's around 12:30 for a pair of shoes with some old giftcards I had laying around. HP had a 40% cashback on computers yesterday, with instant rebates and cashback my $950 computer online will be $445 and better than any than any of the ads.

[Sarah]

I did some shopping yesterday, but it sure wasn't at 7 am. Just picked up some stuff that I was planning to get anyway, and one item that the sale made feasible which otherwise would not have been. I looked at some sales flyers but saw nothing that would compel me to wait the night in the cold for a shot at.

[Tarah]

I spent the whole day hanging out with my two-year-old at home. After I read about that guy who got stampeded to death at Wal-mart, I'm pretty happy I didn't participate this year.

[N.]

I did participate in Black Friday shopping but I did it smart. I had already decided what I was getting everyone for the holidays. If those items weren't on sale then I wouldn't have bothered going out at all. I found a store that was selling both items I needed for 50% off and then $20 in mail in rebates and a $10 gift card. So I ended up with over a $100 worth of stuff that I know will be used on a regular basis for less than $30. I didn't cruise around the store or let myself get sucked in to buying anything else. I do agree with the fact that people take this far to seriously and I would never camp out for a big screen TV.

[kitty]

"I never heard about it until very recently."
Me neither. I'd known there are sales after the holidays in generally, but I'd known nothing about the Black Friday specifically.

Regardless, there are very few things in life that would make me camp out at night and in cold weather. Savings on a few electronic "toys" isn't among them. It has to be something truly life-changing...

[Craig]

Sales will be open all month for the holidays because the stores want people in and to buy more since consumer spending is down. A site to check out regardless of the time of year is frys.com for electronics. Lowest deals I have found.