CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Hoping to get a jumpstart on the holiday shopping season, Gerald Colsen has already begun camping in front of his home computer with the hopes of grabbing the best Black Friday deals.
“It’s really important to be prepared early,” Gerald said while bundled up in a winter jacket with matching hat and gloves. “There are so many different sites you need to hit, and the web traffic is always horrendous.”
Sitting in a fold-out chair and nursing a cup of hot chocolate his wife Nancy had brought him, Gerald laid out his game plan for navigating one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
“So first you gotta hit the big ones, like Amazon and Best Buy and see what kind of sales they are offering on the big ticket items,” he said. “Try to get $5 off a $1,500 TV before they run out of stock. Then you hit the smaller niche sites. They usually offer some decent discounts. Get 15 percent off Q-tips and the like. Good stuff.”
Of course, Gerald is not the only one shopping for deals. “You get a lot of other people online trying to grab the same things you are, and you need to be ready to fight back,” Gerald advised. “I am in general an easy guy to get along with, but if you try to grab that half off soap dish before me, I will find you on Twitter and ruin your life.”
“I once got outbid on eBay trying to get a vintage Zune player,” he continued. “All I’ll say is SoccerKarli663’s Facebook account has been inactive ever since.”
There is more to worry about than simply visiting websites, however. Shoppers must also contend with emails sent by online retailers. “There’s a lot you have to sort through, and they never stop coming,” Gerald explained as he wrapped another blanket around himself, despite the very obvious perspiration streaming down his face. “You’ll get stuff for sites you forgot you ever went to. But you can’t just delete them. There’s always a diamond in the rough buried in there. One time I found an online coupon for 30 percent off a set of 50 bath towels. You can’t beat that!”
As the afternoon wore on, Gerald shouted down the hall to see if Nancy could bring him a plate of the Thanksgiving turkey she was setting down for the rest of the family.
