By Avery Maslowsky, Business Manager
DOs:
1. Go early! Nowadays, the majority of stores open on Thanksgiving at around 6 or 8 (which a lot of people don’t know about). Take time before you go shopping to check the opening times of the stores you want to hit and make a note of where you should go and when. If your family understands your shopping addiction and your need to buy new things, don’t be afraid to go shopping on Thanksgiving. It’s much easier to buy new things when you don’t have thirty people breathing down your neck.
2. Go to the stores with the most popularity first! Everybody knows the stores that have massive cash register lines within an hour of opening. To avoid waiting at all, make a note before of which stores get the craziest and go there first!
3. Bring your parents! While it may seem a little weird bringing your parents to the craziest shopping night of the year, you need them. The lines are long and parents are most of the time willing to wait in them for you. While you hop store to store, they can as well hold your spot in line and hold some of your bags (if necessary).
4. Plan your parking! The parking lots get full really fast on Black Friday. If you go early and have the option of choosing where to park, either try to get one of the first spots right by the front of the store, one of the parking spots closest to the exits or one of the parking spots near the back of the lot where no one wants to park. Also, if you are going to the KOP mall, park in the lots where people are less likely to park like the lot by Lord and Taylor, the employee parking garage and the TGIF lot.
5. Get some sleep before! Whether you’re going to bed at 8:00 Wednesday night or taking a nap on Thanksgiving day, you need to get some sleep. Odds are you are going to be out all night and no one wants to start getting drowsy when you still have more shops to hit.
DON’Ts:
1. Don’t bring heavy bags! You are most likely going to be spending all night out shopping. To avoid literal body pains the next day, don’t bring a heavy purse/bag for yourself. Either bring a small backpack or a wristlet There is no need for anything weighing you down besides from tons of shopping bags. All you need is money and your phone and you are good to go for the whole night!
2. Don’t wear heavy clothes or a lot of clothing! Just like heavy bags, you don’t need clothing being the thing weighing you down on one of the most important nights of the year (not really). Wear a light outfit that you can take off really easily to be able to try on multiple things in a quick amount of time. And you also don’t need a coat. While your parents are probably totally against this, the mall is going to be really hot with all of the people swarming around inside and it’s just a waste of space.
3. Don’t go to stores with bad deals! In the KOP mall at least, there are the stores with great deals and those with mediocre. Stores like American Eagle usually have buy one get one 50 percent off deal, but most of the time the deal just isn’t worth the wait in the lines they have. There are also the stores that are normally cheap and have deals as well, but don’t waste your time in those stores. Black Friday is the chance for you to go to the stores you can’t normally buy a bunch of things in. Be smart with the stores you hit and how long you spend in them.
4. Don’t use the dressing rooms! It’s just a waste of time. The lines for the dressing rooms are usually very long, and you usually only have to try on a few things. Wear easy on and off clothes where you can try things on in the actual store. But use the dressing rooms if you need to actually try on something where wearing clothes underneath would affect the size. Be smart about your dressing room trips, but don’t cut them out of your whole night altogether.
5. Eat at home! While this probably not super big for the people who had thirds on Thanksgiving, don’t waste time eating dinner or having snacks at the mall or at stores. They suck away time and suck away your money. If anything, bring snacks or hit the food places after you are done shopping.
Avery Maslowsky can be reached at [email protected].
