Tips For College Students

Anyone who has ever been a college student knows money is usually pretty tight on campus. A full-time student has limited hours and/or enthusiasm to perform even part-time work. Scholarships and money from parents are often the only backing available to a college student. That's why gift-loving undergraduates look forward to Black Friday - the day following the American Thanksgiving holiday where most people just order flowers. Black Friday and the subsequent weekend is the biggest retail period of the year, and sellers across the U.S. offer generous discounts to garner sales traffic over this critical weekend.

Students enjoy Black Friday because their money goes further and they can purchase more of the computers and electronic equipment they desire. The sales Black Friday provides are not only enjoyable for students, on good years they can ignite the U.S. economy. Market research pegs 2010 Black Friday sales at about $11.7 billion. Parents love to bestow Black Friday gifts on their children in college since the kids often cannot afford to shop for themselves. And merchants count on their huge Black Friday discounts to trigger long-deferred demand.

If you asked students what they wanted most on Black Friday, computers would be very close to the top of the list. It is really hard for a modern undergraduate to succeed without a computer. For students thinking of buying a laptop, Black Friday is a great time to shop, as prices are as low as they are going to be for the remainder of the year. Students already owning a computer may instead look for Black Friday flat screen TVs or replacement computer monitors. Old-fashioned cathode ray tube televisions cannot provide high definition pictures, while flat screens can and do not take up a lot of the precious space available in dormitory rooms.

Here is the number one Black Friday shopping tip for college students: to get precisely what you are looking for, arrive at stores 24 hours before the start of the sales event. Maybe it is the nature of the young to find adventure in camping out at an electronic store until the doors open at, say, 2 am. Remember, this is following the annual stomach-stuffing food bacchanal known as Thanksgiving. It must be somewhat uncomfortable for students to wait outside, perhaps in the rain or snow, while slowly digesting 6000 calories of turkey and fixings. But merchants know that, on Black Friday, if discounts are high enough, they will come.