Last Minute Shopping Madness

December 21, 2009

Interview with Freeman Hall, author of the book Retail Hell: How I Sold My Soul to the Store Confessions of a Tortured Sales Associate

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Mike Carruthers:
If you’ve waited until now to do your Christmas shopping there’s good news and bad news. First the good news…

Freeman Hall:
It’s a good time to go because there will be a lot of stuff on sale.

Retail expert Freeman Hall, author of the book on the whole experience of retail shopping…

Having worked in retail for over twenty years the one thing that I always noticed where I worked, we took huge mark downs the week before Christmas. And it’s because stores want to move the merchandise out.

Even with only a few days left it’s best if you can avoid shopping on Wednesday the 23rd.

A lot of focus is on black Friday but the stores do their biggest volume on December 23rd. So that’s the day that everybody goes out to the malls and the stores. So if you can get your shopping done beforehand it’s a good idea.

Freeman says that since you’re so late in the Christmas shopping game you might consider gift cards.

They used to be kind of considered a lame gift when they were called gift certificates but now people love them. Because the best thing about it is you can go and get whatever you want.

One of the biggest hassles of last minute shopping, isn’t the shopping it’s the parking so Freeman suggests…

Avoid the parking structure or the parking lot, have someone drop you off or take a cab it’ll cut your stress level in half, that way you’re not going to be fighting for parking – there you go…Happy Holidays.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here