Black Friday Warning
Christina Tynan-Wood on Nov 24 2009 at 11:41 am | Filed under: Web sites, shopping
I have been literally pelted with announcements, predictions, and analysis of the year’s biggest shopping day – Black Friday, upcoming on Friday – and the year’s biggest online shopping day –CyberMonday, upcoming the Monday after turkey Day. This herd behavior as regards shopping has never really appealed to me. I know there are deals to be had on Black Friday and CyberMonday. But there are always deals to be had. And I don’t like crowds.
But here is one announcement that did catch my eye as regards the run-up to the Christmas shopping season: Free Shipping Day. You know how I like free shipping. The only reason to go to the store and brave the crowds to get a deal – in my humble opinion – is to avoid paying shipping fees. On Free Shipping Day – Thursday, December 17 – participating merchants will ship your last-minute purchases to you, guaranteed to arrive in time for December 25th. It was a huge success last year. So this year, even more merchants have signed up. It looks like everyone from F.A.O Schwarz to Beauty.com will be there.
I know what crowd I’ll be braving to get my Christmas shopping done: The one at my dining room table that comes with pajamas and a mug of coffee. Sure, I’ll have to push my way past the dog, shove the cat off my chair, and hide my screen from the gaze of my gift recipients. But it will be well worth it. I’ll see you there.
[...] made it pretty clear that I prefer shopping online to fighting crowds. (Especially if I get free shipping.) But sometimes – especially when shopping for clothes – locating the right item online can be [...]
[...] I am pretty much done when it comes to Christmas shopping. But there is always a last minute item or two that escaped my advance-planning-and-take-advantage-of-free-shipping-and-online-sales campaign. It’s inevitable. I will probably think of it today since yesterday was free shipping day. [...]