Shop Til You Drop

So, did you venture out yesterday to engage in the martial art known as shopping on Black Friday?

I did.

And I can honestly say that it wasn't too bad. Sure, there were crowds, but I did my shopping after 2PM and before 6PM. We shopping up and down the Route 17 corridor in Paramus, New Jersey, which has the highest concentration of stores pretty much anywhere in the country.

Some tips for shopping based on my observations:

1) Don't take the kids with you. They'll only slow you down. You want to get in and out of a store, and kids, especially young 'uns, only add to the stress of shopping. If you have no choice but to take the kids with you, don't try to do all your shopping at once. Your kids will get cranky, and you'll be in even worse shape.

2) The best way to treat the day as less stressful is to treat shopping like a sport. See if you can find the best deals.

3) Use coupons. Lots of them. Bed Bath and Beyond, Linens n' Things, and many other stores have coupons. Save $5 on $15 purchases or 20% off on single items (but use as many coupons as you can; they'll let you save tons of money for just a little bit of coupon clipping.

4) Go online. I know you're already here, so you can head over to any of the price comparison website. I use Pricescan.

5) Check out hotdealsclub, which has the best deals found at many vendors online. It pulls the coupons offered, plus best deals and you can save a bunch. At one point, I outfitted my office with 2 desks, 2 bookcases, and save a couple hundred bucks in the process because there was a coupon for OfficeDepot that let me save 30% per item.

Have fun! Happy Holidays!

UPDATE:
Others blogging the shopping and Black Friday (and updated as needed): Euphoric Reality, Jaid Black, The Spirit of Man (who comments on the hand-to-hand combat nature of fighting for deals), Metroblogging Atlanta, Pundit Guy (who doesn't get the whole concept of running out to shop the day after Thanksgiving), Sister Toldjah (who comments on the doorbuster bodybusting trampling that happens on an annual basis), Fraters Libertas (who sent the Missus out to buy a laptop at an incredible price $378), The People's Republic of Seabrook.