This was interesting I thought as there was a person who over the past months was saying that he was never going to spend money on certain products/services again as overall he just found that he was spending too much. For the most part he did follow through with this too. Then the funny thing was today he all of a sudden spent money on it again. When asked what his reasoning for it was he basically said because it was Black Friday and he didn’t do things such as go shopping in the mall. So he figured that he may as well spend money on something.

The power of mob mentality I was thinking. It’s like hearing all the news and buzz just makes it feel like you must have to do it too for many people. At the same time, I guess in this case he did mention that the sales did influence it so the notion that a person would be “missing out” was a factor too I guess. It’s like the only way for many to not start shopping like crazy is to not even pay attention to any media information about sales in general.

I actually didn’t end up getting anything today as I didn’t see anything that I really needed or would give as a gift.

Of course tomorrow is Black Friday. As well, the upcoming Monday is Cyber Monday. That sure puts a shopper in a tricky predicament as do you go all out and start purchasing the best deals you see tomorrow for example or do you wait for the Monday event incase something better comes along?

Cyber Monday was developed more for online stores, so because of that in my mind I personally hold off on any electronics or computer related purchases personally as that is usually what most online retailers sell. Unless for some reason I know that the price can’t get any cheaper in the other sale and I definitely need it now. Usually at worst too you kind find very similar deals on either sale days except one you are going to fight an in-store crowd and the other an online one.

As usual around this time there are a lot of news articles telling people who live outside the US on what the best stores to visit are if one is intending to visit south of the border to take advantage of Black Friday deals. Sure enough, there a re a ton of people who are willing to make the one day trip to do so.

This then reminded me of a person who actually tries to schedule his vacations around big events like that as well where he essentially kills two birds with one stone. Like in this case, he planned his for a week that is within this Black Friday sale. Not a bad idea if you wanted to save money I suppose and the schedule works for you. I was never too into going into a different country just for a sales event though as if I really wanted it I would think it would be easier to ask someone to buy it and then make arrangements to either ship o pick it up after.

So people in the US are going to have their Black Friday sales soon and I have already seen ads for a lot of the major retailers. I am not going to be going south of the border myself to do any shopping, but it’s interesting to see all these deals. It’s usually not uncommon that if a company is having a big sale for particular items in a certain country that it may very well arrive in your area as well. For example, here in Canada we have our boxing day sale after Christmas and I wouldn’t be surprised if I see these same exact TV or computer packages on sale during our events.

Some of the prices I see for things just makes it look like toy. For example, a waffle maker for about $3? I think a fake one costs more than that. I can easily see people buying that just for the sake that the price is so low.

I was talking to a person today about how he was starting a new business and that the building he has is one empty space where he pretty much has to furnish it from ground up. We were then talking about how much stuff he would have to buy such as new televisions and other materials. He was then saying how it was okay in some ways as he knew Black Friday sales are coming up and so he intends to buy most of his items then to save a lot of money.

Not bad thinking I thought as ironically usually people that shop for business items are more in a just buy it when you need it mode and so they usually end up paying way more than needed. I find it usually has to do with the “It’s a write off anyways” type of mentality. It’s probably a bad habit developed too from when people work as employees in a business and they are just told “Go buy this as we need it” so it’s more about getting the item now as opposed to finding good deals.

I even find that a lot of people that shop for their businesses are apprehensive about using coupons as for some reason it makes them feel weird. Nothing weird about saving money money I say. Kind of funny as a person would work so hard to wheel and deal in an effort to get a bill smaller for something like the utilities yet simple things like a coupon where it’s like the negotiation has been done for you already isn’t embraced.