Each year David McCombs and a rotating crew of friends have shown up days – sometimes a week – in advance and set up tents, couches and folding chairs to wait for the official start of the holiday shopping season.

They played lacrosse, organized basketball tournaments and watched movies that they projected onto the side of the building. At night, they slept in sleeping bags and hammocks as they prepared for the year’s biggest competition: Beating their neighbours to discounted doorbusters.

Shoppers, it seems, are over the frenzied, harried, wait-all-night-in-the-cold madness of Black Friday. Consumers are increasingly shunning the shopping holiday, opting instead to spread out purchases over a course of weeks or months.

Before Black Friday became just another day of discounts, it was the largest shopping day of the year. For decades, customers lined up at the country’s shopping malls and big-box stores clamouring for deals they couldn’t get the other 364 days of the year. It was a frenetic hunt – that sometimes led to mass hysteria – for discounts. There were stampedes in stores and arguments in the aisles.

Here are 8 hacks to ensure that you have the best Black Friday ever:

1. Sign up for emails

Decide which stores you will shop at this year. Visit each website and sign up for email newsletters. It is important that you do this at least two weeks before Black Friday.

2. Shop on Wednesday

Sometimes, the Black Friday prices are not always the lowest price. Visit the store on Wednesday to find out.

3. Know where to shop

There are deals happening everywhere. Ensure that you know which stores will offer you the best prices.

The Twittersphere has suggestions too:

4. Money saved is money earned

5. Charge your phone battery before you hit the shops

6. Check expiry dates!

7. MYTH: You can’t beat Black Friday prices

According to Capitec, this assumption is false. Christmas is around the corner and retailers have a month left to lure consumers into their shops with attractive deals. On Black Friday, stores have so-called doorbusters – those are the big discount deals being advertised to get you into the shop – but the discount on the majority of the products is much smaller.

More importantly:

#BlackFriday updates in South Africa:

REMEMBER:

Categories: Money News