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Tips How to Prepare for Black Friday

Before you line up outside Best Buy in the dead of night, before you clip out coupon after coupon, even before you review our best of Black Friday deals, there’s prep work to be done for every retailer’s favorite day of the year. We got in touch with Black Friday experts and collected their thoughts on how best to ready yourself for consumer battle.

It’s easy to get lured in by names like Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. These retailers pull out all the stops when it comes to Black Friday, with full page ads and national press. Their reputations precede them, and accordingly result in very, very long lines. Lines that tend to be filled with the most determined shoppers. If you’re thinking about snagging one of those 40-inch Westinghouse TVs at Target, Jon Vincent of Black Friday.info says you will “need to get in line Wednesday night.”

But it’s not futile for those who want to take advantage of the one-day deals without missing the Thursday holiday; you just need to strategize. If you aren’t stuck on any of the big stores’ door busters, Vincent as well as Bfads‘ Michael Brim advises hitting up smaller office supply retailers like Office Depot and Office Max. Both will have worthwhile electronics discounted, like the Magellan Roadmate 3045 navigation system for $99.99 at Office Depot. Riddle mentioned a netbook for $179 at Radio Shack. The lines are short (sometimes non-existent), the staff less stressed, and there’s a decent array of tech gifts to choose from. Sam’s Club is even offering free breakfast to customers diligently waiting in the cold. You won’t find that at Target this year.

Mike Riddle of Black-Friday.net laughs when asked if he’s standing in lines come November 26. One year, he stood in line all day at Best Buy for the store’s door buster TV discount, and once he got in, they were all out. Then he went home and bought it on Amazon.

Vincent echoes Riddle’s sentiment, “Ask yourself, ‘is it worth it?’” He doesn’t think so. Brim agrees that Amazon offers not only the same discounts, but the time and anguish you spend on Black Friday are eliminated. The site promises to match all discounts, and Riddle reports that the site will knock two cents off in-store prices. Add to this that Amazon will be running price cuts starting Monday the 22, its free shipping policy for purchases over $25, and no sales tax, and you’ve got yourself a pretty convincing argument to sit at home on Black Friday.

Dev Shapiro of GottaDeal.com disagrees. He will be among the discount devotees outside Best Buy as early as 6 a.m. Tuesday morning. Shapiro says until consumers are guaranteed that online shopping sites’ servers won’t crash or the items they want won’t sell out in minutes, it's best to “do it the old-fashioned way” – get in line.

On that note, here’s an insider’s tip: Anyone out there interested in Best Buy’s $99 Nook, it’s suspected Amazon will offer the Kindle for the same price starting Monday.

If you’re going to do Black Friday, you better do it right. The first step is doing your research. Shapiro’s advice is to search a coupon site, retailer’s site, and individual product’s sites. He points out that ads will show you how much you’re saving on an item, but not how much it’s actually worth. “A store might be overstocked on a product, maybe they just need to clear out the warehouse, avoid getting taxed on something that’s been sitting there. So they throw it out for Black Friday.”

It’s also important to take details into account. Shapiro pointed out that this year’s Target Westinghouse TV is certainly a steal at $298, but buyers should note that it only has one HDMI port. So you have to decide whether you connect your Blu-ray or DVD player, cable box, or video game console. Or, you need to factor in the cost of another hookup, which runs between $100 and $200.

And do this research in advance. Don’t even think about leisurely pawing through the coupon pages on Thanksgiving – get your product’s specs and serial number down, know how many a store will have available, and have an image as well. Black-Friday.net will organize this list for you, if the idea of putting it all together yourself is a little overwhelming.

If your heart is set on one of the big name retailers, timing is crucial. This year’s Black Friday build up is primarily focused on Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, with Kmart and Staples also getting some attention. While all our experts agree it varies depending on the size of your town and what items you want, the general consensus on when to line up for doorbuster items is sometime between Wednesday evening and early Thursday afternoon.

Also, realize that you are limiting yourself to one store. Sure, there are the super humans, existing on adrenaline, caffeine, and a great ability to push through crowds, that can hit up multiple large retailers. But they are far and few between. Most of us have to choose one and commit.

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Tips How to Prepare for Black Friday

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