Greg's Corner

Avoid the Black Friday drama

The topic of Black Friday has become almost as contentious as the recent Presidential election. For the past few years, we’ve seen the stories of people either being trampled or assaulted, just in the name of supposedly saving a couple of bucks on a shiny new gadget. What you should know before you start camping out for the alleged savings, is that Black Friday deals are more of a predatory practice than anything.

One of the biggest tricks that retailers like to play on consumers on Black Friday is having limited stock on the items they’re advertising as a great deal. You’ll be lucky if the store has more than five of these items on stock. What they want you to do is find that the item has been sold out and want you to buy a similar item at full price.

Instead of camping out or losing some of your dignity in a box store brawl, think about doing your holiday shopping online. Often times you’ll find a lot of good deals online starting on Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after Black Friday. Use the time to spend with your family or loved ones instead of laying siege on your local Wal-Mart.