Has Black Friday traditionally always torn the family apart. You look around and there are a bunch of wide-eyed, dreary-faced misfits sitting around scouring the internet and papers for sales. Then there’s the, “let’s ditch out right after dinner and camp out to get me a new TV…” Over the last decade, I’ve had the great “fortune” of working in the consumer electronics retail environment. Today, I’m going to be giving you some of the best-kept secrets of the trade so you can ensure your holiday shopping goes as smoothly and cost-effectively!

1. They're not all really on sale!

Some stuff is just on regular sale, which would be the same price already. You just don’t know it, and they know that you don’t, so why not count that in? So many years, I have seen TV’s, computers, accessories, consistently be on sale for weeks or even months, and then on Black Friday, it’s advertised for the same price with little to no added value to the customer. It was sad seeing those customers leave feeling accomplished after spending so much time and energy. They could have simply come the week before, and been in and out in 10 minutes.

PRO TIP: Many times a retailer will even take it off sale for a month prior to Black Friday, then put it back on just for Black Friday to throw off people who don’t do their research. That’s why the next tip is so crucial!

2. Price comparison plugins

In this modern-day, there are many extensions for your browsers that give you live price tracking and notifications. Extensions such as Honey will pop up when you are looking at a product. It will show you if there are any lower prices on the web and what the price history for this item was. You can even set a threshold amount, so they will send you a notification if the price drops below what you specify. This is Black Friday year-round.

3. Check the proceedeing weeks

Many of the Black Friday deals persist the weeks following Black Friday into the Holidays. As I mentioned in my first tip, many items are not actually on a special Black Friday sale, just advertised as so. And if buying for the holidays isn’t the utmost importance, retailers know about “tax-return season”. Many items will go on sale during those times to promote customers to use their tax refunds to make bigger purchases. If you plan wisely, you can use that time you reap in the benefits as well!

4. Do all of your shopping online

No matter how good the deal is, do not get duped by waiting in line. Those days are long over and there are no reasons to be spending hours in the cold outside waiting to get what you’re looking for. We have the vast resources of the world wide web! Be on the lookout. Most major online retailers are offering very similar, if not the same pricing and will prioritize pushing their products out for the holidays, and I say well, “put em’ to work!” With the use of plugins such as the ones mentioned in my first tip, you can often find better deals not related to Black Friday.

5. Check product cycles

All products and brands have particular product cycles. While some are more predictable than others, checking to see when new models of what you want is always a good idea. This will ultimately let you know when to expect a price drop for the item you're looking for. Once you have determined that, when the time comes, jump on it. Often, retailers want to clear out their back-stock and make room for new inventory.

6. Look at reviews!

Many times, when in the face of "a deal too good to be true", we forget to realize that we may or do not know anything about this product. For all I know, it could be one of the worst-rated products, that would break over time, or not perform as expected, causing a greater headache. This is why online shopping can be helpful since so many reviews can be available. You can sift through and make sure this is a product worth purchasing. Countless times, have I seen customers rush in a hurry and impulse buy a blatantly awful product. Save yourself the trouble, trust me!

7. Look for the small stuff

Those doorbuster deals are what cause injury, death, and general mayhem. But you don't have to a part of the stampede. If you DO choose to go to a retailer, avoid the big-ticket items if you can. There are plenty of deals to be had on accessories such as flash drives. You always need a flash drive, right? External storage devices, stereos, smaller TVs, things you would purchase anyway but now they're significantly cheaper. And since they're not the big-ticket items, they're liabe to stay on the shelves longer.

8. Price matching

Most major retailers will price match with a local brick and mortar competitor. However, many will even match with online retailers such as Amazon or B&H . Similar to my second tip, you can use a plethora of apps to compare prices for a particular item in-store and online. So let's say you're out and about and strike a great deal on a Macbook Pro, you can scan the barcode with your fancy phone and it will give you all the deets!

9. Ditch the papers

Unless you have a paper mache project planned out don't bring home the ad papers. They're junk, and all of the information and pricing is online. Let's do ourselves a favor and save some trees. Seriously, who needs ad papers these days? Though this may not seem obvious at first, I've seen many items at the same retailer, online for a lower price than what is advertised in the paper. Additionally, there are digital copies of all the ad papers online if you want to cross-reference and get into it.

10. Don't impulse buy

I can't say that I haven't been a victim of this but I have better learned since. As mentioned earlier about checking reviews, the next question is, did you actually want this. Because if not, then sadly the Black Friday effect has worked on you. But don't be too ashamed, we've all been there. But once you realize this is solely the objective of the big corporations' plan to create a heavy pay week for themselves. You don't always have to buy into it. Only when it works out to benefit you!

Now that you have a better understanding of what’s happening behind the scenes of Black Friday, shop your little hearts out! Enjoy the calmness that comes with not completely buying into Black Friday. And if you did well this year, then pat yourself on the back, you deserve it! On that note, I’m going to pat myself on the back for writing this, I hope you all enjoyed and gained something valuable from this. Cheers and Happy Holidays from TekPatel, your outside of the box Tech Guy!

Feel free to comment below for any sweet deals you may have found! :)

10 Black Friday Insider Secrets