Black Friday Shopping Tips

Hey, lovely! Black Friday is only a few days away! If you’re planning to get up and be in line–or online–at 3 AM to get the best deals this Black Friday, you might want to reconsider, according to Wirecutter, a New York Times company that reviews products and deals to find the best ones. Adam Burakowski, deals editor for Wirecutter, says some retailers will bring their best prices long before Black Friday, advising people to start holiday shopping sooner.

More than 154 million consumers shopped in stores and online on Black Friday last year, roughly 3 million more than in 2015, according to the National Retail Federation.

Burakowski anticipates that this holiday deals season will be even busier, and with the best deals surfacing before the official shopping season, Wirecutter has expanded its deals staff. This year, more than 65 deals editors and writers will sift through all of the holiday deals, posting only vetted and recommended products—those that are actual bargains—to its deals page, Twitter account, and Daily Deals newsletter.

*Last year from Thanksgiving through the end of Cyber Monday, Wirecutter scanned roughly 55,000 deal listings but found only 262 that were actual deals.

See below for Wirecutter’s tips for getting the best deals this holiday season:

1. Start checking prices now. If there is a particular product you know you want to buy this holiday season, start checking prices early. You might be able to avoid all the Black Friday hassle and still get a bargain.

2. Keep an eye out for price-matching. During Black Friday, sale prices are sometimes matched by other merchants, so be sure to investigate. A price-matching strategy is particularly worthwhile if you have gift cards or certain retailer credit cards because you can maximize your discounts that way.

3. Look for the big deals. There’s a big difference between saving a couple of dollars and saving $20 or more, so be sure you know which deals are worthwhile. Since far less than 1 percent (in fact, less than .001 percent) of the deals last Black Friday were good enough for Wirecutter to alert its readers and followers, bookmark their Black Friday deals page to stay a step ahead.

Never the less, plenty of Americans will be shopping on Black Friday! Check out these statistics from LendEDU

Happy Shopping!