Tips for college students

If you have ever been a college student, you know money is usually pretty tight on campus. A full-time student has few hours and little enthusiasm to perform even part-time work. Scholarships and support from parents are often the only money available to a college student. That's why many undergraduates look forward to Black Friday - the day right after the American Thanksgiving holiday where students often order flowers for their parents if they can't get back home. Black Friday and the subsequent weekend is the biggest selling period of the year, and merchants across the U.S. offer large discounts to spur sales traffic over this critical holiday weekend.

Students anticipate Black Friday because their money goes further and they can buy more of the computers and electronics they desire. The sales Black Friday provides are not only important for students, on good years they can restart the U.S. economy. Market research estimates 2010 Black Friday sales at about $11.7 billion. Parents love to shower Black Friday gifts on their children in college since the kids often cannot afford to shop on their own. And merchants rely on tremendous Black Friday discounts to ignite long-deferred demand.

If you inquired of students what they wanted most on Black Friday, computers would be very near the top of the list. It is unthinkably hard for today's undergraduate to succeed without a computer. For students contemplating the purchase of a laptop, Black Friday is a nice time to shop, as prices are as low as any period over the remainder of the year. Students already possessing a computer may instead want on Black Friday flat screen TVs or replacement computer monitors. Ancient cathode ray tube televisions cannot provide high-def pictures, while flat screens can while not hogging a lot of the precious space available in dormitory rooms.

The number one Black Friday shopping tip for college students is: to find precisely what you are looking for, arrive at stores at least 24 hours before the doors open. Maybe it is the nature of college youth to see adventure in camping out at an electronics store until the sale begins at, say, 1 am. Remember, this is after the annual gut-stuffing food bonanza known as Thanksgiving. It must be a little uncomfortable for students to hang around outside, perhaps in the cold or snow, while slowly digesting 7000 calories of turkey and stuffing. But merchants understand that, on Black Friday, if discounts are large enough, they will come.