10+ Black Friday Shopping Hacks
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1. Check Out the Ads:
2. Do Your Research Before Friday:
3. Compare Prices:
4. Set a Budget
5. Kohl's Has the Best Toy Deals:
6. Bring the Ads:
OR make sure your phone is charged, and take the BFAds app (iOS) (Android) with you to the store to verify prices and promotions as you shop.
7. JCPenney Has the Best Clothing Deals:
8. Ask for Gift Receipts:
9. CamelCamelCamel
10. No One Price Matches on Black Friday
Price match leaders like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy each have a disclaimer excluding Black Friday sales from price matching.
- Target: “Price matches and adjustments to competitors will not be allowed for prices from Thanksgiving Day through the entire week after Thanksgiving. (11/23/2017 – 12/2/2017).”
- Walmart: “…This does not apply to Clearance, Special buy, Value of the Day or deep discounts like Thanksgiving, Black Friday or Cyber Monday… Walmart.com will not price match items on Walmart.com or to other retailers between Thanksgiving and Cyber-Monday.”
- Best Buy: “… and [excluding] items for sale Thanksgiving Day through the Monday after Thanksgiving, whether offered by Best Buy or a competitor.”
- Amazon used to price match, but this year they’ve scaled back, and now they only price match TVs. Regarding Black Friday, their policy states “The Guarantee will not apply to Comparable Offers which are promoted or marketed as limited time sales or offers, which last for 72 hours or less, such as Lightning Deals, Gold Box Deals, Black Friday, ‘early bird’ or ‘door buster’ offers (‘Limited Time Promotion’). The Guarantee will also not apply to Eligible TVs purchased as part of a Limited Time Promotion by Amazon.”
- Kohl’s price match policy doesn’t exclude Black Friday specifically, but my call to customer service let me know that they don’t plan to price match on Black Friday, and the policy will be updated before Black Friday. Even if they did, their price match policy excludes such a huge list of brands, it’d be near impossible to find an eligible product anyway.
11. Cash Back From Paribus
Sign up for Paribus, and they’ll check your inbox or your credit card statement, track your purchases, alert you of price drops, and file the request on your behalf! They keep a 25% cut of your savings in exchange for the work, but you don’t lift a finger. Paribus will work to get you money back from these merchants.
12. Get The Amazon App
Buying big ticket items in store? Make sure Amazon doesn't have it cheaper by downloading the Amazon app (iOS) (Android) to pull up the Amazon price of any item, and never overpay again.
13. Don't Miss The Free Stuff
In the past, Kohl’s offered free movie tickets to the first 100 people in line. PetSmart offered a free paw print ornament and a movie rental to the first 100 customers. Michaels gave out gift cards to the first 21 customers. Here is a sample of the freebies from a few years ago.
14. Get Those Email Coupons
At least 2 weeks ahead of Black Friday, sign up to receive emails from the stores where you plan to shop.
But many stores will even send you instant coupons, so keep an eye out.