7 Black Friday Shopping Tips - How Not To Get Ripped Off
Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, I'm going to be giving you seven tips on how to shop effectively this Black Friday,
Cyber Monday, and Thanksgiving weekend.
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can read it on your smart phone when you're out there shopping this weekend.
Okay, so why am I giving you these seven tips?
Many of you guys have been shopping your entire lives and you feel pretty comfortable doing
it.
Well, I'm a retailer.
I own a custom clothier and I'm on the opposite side of the buyer, and I know many of the
things we use to get people to buy.
And if they're not used ethically, I think it's my responsibility to let you know that
you're going to see things like scarcity.
You're going to see things like value prop.
You'll see a retail price and they say they're knocking it off 70% or 50% when really the
item isn't even worth that amount of money still, or you're going to have other herd
mentality.
You see these big box stores where everyone rushes in and people are just grabbing things.
This is where Black Friday gets really dangerous.
Guys, I want you to understand, and I don't want you to have buyer's remorse come later
on in this season and then find out you can't even return it or you can only get an in-store
credit, or worse case, you get stuck with something and you never wear it or you never
use it.
Okay, so I'm reading from the list.
I didn’t have time to memorize all this stuff, but the number one tip is whenever
you go out there shopping, gentlemen, know what you're looking for.
One of the things I preach and I talk about over at Real Men Real Style is that you need
to understand what is in your core wardrobe.
You need to understand what you need to own versus what would be nice to own, but really
isn't going to add much to your wardrobe.
So that way, when you're going out there shopping and you see a great deal, you don't just buy
something because it's 70% off or 60% off or you think it'll look good on you.
You actually purchase something because gosh, it's on your list and you've created a list
of what should be in your core wardrobe.
So that's the number one thing, gentlemen, is know what you're going out to purchase
and that's what you should be going after.
Now, this list can be as long as you want it to be.
And one of the things I talk about in my style system is that you need to have this list
and you need to have it not only broken out, but in a priority order.
So if you already own a number of dress shirts, there's no reason to buy any more dress shirts
even if they're on sale.
Instead, you should be looking for trousers because you've only got maybe one pair of
nice dress slacks.
Okay, the second thing I'm going to talk about is to budget and I'm not saying that you need
to stick exactly like, say, "I'm only going to spend $100 today."
No, that's not the kind of budgeting I'm talking about.
I mean, you need to budget for individual items and know what their true value is.
Let's take a really nice pair of jeans.
Well, if you know that Levi's normally sell for retail for $50 to $60, the brand that
you're going after, maybe you're looking at some 505's and you know that they sell for
$40, well, when you know that, you're not going to fall into a store that says normally
these -- well, you know they normally sell at $40.
When the store says they normally sell it at $60 their retail and they marked them down
by 50%, well, that's only a $10 savings that you know that they should only be $40.
Do you kind of see the math there, guys?
Basically, when you know what the true value of something is and you budget for it, you'll
be able to identify value when you truly see it.
It doesn’t matter what store you're at and looking across brands, so the same thing with
the sports jacket.
And why I don't want you to stick with a hard price is sometimes you're going to come across
something and you're going to say, "Wow!
This is a great deal.
I wasn't necessarily looking for it.
It was a little bit lower on my list, but I'm going to go ahead and jump on this because
it's 70% off and this is a sports jacket made by Zegna" or a company that consistently puts
out good quality, and I'm going to go ahead and make the purchase.
I'm pulling out my notes here.
Number three, be able to identify quality.
Now, how can you identify quality?
Well, the first off, first thing is you want to be able to make sure that it has to fit
you, not exactly quality for everyone, but if it doesn’t fit you, it doesn’t really
matter.
After that, look at the fiber.
Feel the fabric.
Again, I'll take jeans.
I was in looking at different brands and if you know you're going to be wearing these,
if jeans are really, really thin, gentlemen, understand that denim is going to most likely
wear out.
Unless it's a higher end brand, it probably means that they're on the cheap side and you
want to avoid them.
When it comes to jackets or sports jackets, feeling the shoulders, know that there is
a difference between a brand, usually many of the brands that sell in Sears, versus the
brands that sell in Neiman Marcus, and understand that a $200 jacket that you buy in Sears is
not the same as a $200 jacket that is on sale from $500 that you're purchasing at a higher
end store like Macy's or Barneys.
Focus on fit.
Okay, I jumped the gun on number three, but if it doesn't fit you, gentlemen, and especially
if you're over the age of 21, you're not going to grow into it.
About the age of 21, we stop getting taller.
We get a little bit wider after that, but make sure it fits you because there's nothing
you can do if there isn't going to be fabric in there.
You may think that you're going to lose those ten pounds and that shirt is going to fit
you really well when you lose that ten pounds.
Gentlemen, it's probably not going to happen, so focus on the fit.
Compare prices.
Okay, so before you even go out there and especially on Cyber Monday, you're going to
be able to go quickly to websites and be able to compare prices.
Don't get stuck on this entirely and realize that sometimes it's a bait-and-switch.
Make sure you look at shipping costs as well.
And it's my opinion that I would rather pay a little bit more and go with a good quality
brand.
After that, you're going to want to check the return policy, so make sure whenever you
buy something that it can be returned.
Many times, and they're not always going to tell us, but you'll just got to be able to
get an in-store credit.
I've had in some companies, in a sense you can't return it.
So make sure that they've got a good return policy.
Usually, the larger, big box stores have a good return policy.
Amazon has an amazing return policy, but look at the final details there.
And last is going to be coupon codes, discount codes.
Pay attention to that stuff.
There are many sites like dappered.com and there are a few other ones that they let people
know about this stuff, but see if you can stack them on top of each other and if you
can really build up the savings, but try to use that to your advantage.
Gentlemen, be aware and realize that these sales are going to come and go.
Don't go out there and purchase something and find out that you can't return it.
Be smart.
I prefer Cyber Monday over Black Friday because I just don't like to be out there, but I can
tell you, I did a little bit of prep work.
I'm in the market for a new pair of jeans and I went out there and I tried on all the
different types of Levi's over at JC Penney's earlier today, and I'm going to go on to Levis.com
probably tomorrow, maybe Friday.
I'm going to look for a sale.
I know exactly what size.
I know exactly what style and I know exactly what color.
I also have a good idea of the price because I went into the store.
By the way, I do go in and I support my local stores, but do what you can to support your
local stores, gentlemen, but also, I want you to get the best deal this holiday.
I'll see you guys in the next video.
If you want to learn more by the way about men's styles, don't forget I've got a great
premium e-book that is going to be totally revamped.
It's actually going to be an entire website in itself.
I did a webinar just the other day and I'm sure it'll give a lot of people an inside
look at that, A Man's Guide to Style.
I'll link to it down below.
Make sure to grab it before I knock the price up at the end of this year, which is going
to happen because it's going to be really good.
Okay, guys, I'll see you in the next video.
Bye-bye.