Christmas shopping: How to beat the mad rush 

All opinions are mine and mine alone.

Christmas shopping: How to beat the mad rush 

Believe it or not, that time of the year has arrived. It’s the season for mad queues, rude shoppers and plenty of rushing. Only kidding! The festivities are just around the corner. While Christmas is a fantastic occasion to look forward to for many of us, all of the above is also true. Particularly if you don’t plan and leave things until the last minute, it can become rushed, and the enjoyment can be sapped out of proceedings. Bearing this in mind, in the build-up to the festivities, we have penned some tips that should help make your Christmas shopping a lot more efficient. Stick to the following rules, and the following weeks will be significantly easier. 

Timing is key 

We don’t want to spend too long on this first point – it’s hopefully quite obvious. In short, if you head out on Christmas Eve, you’re asking for trouble. Not only will you get the last scraps of potential presents (particularly this year, if reports are to be believed), but you’re hardly going to be in your most creative mindset as you bid to rush through a checklist. 

The longer, the better. Preferably, November. 

The research phase is paramount 

As the purpose of today is all about saving time during your Christmas shopping adventure, strolling around cities looking for gift ideas isn’t a possibility. Instead, you need to hit the high-streets with a plan. Find out what you are buying your nearest and dearest through some shrewd online research, and then map out precisely what stores will stock said items. If you’re feeling particularly prepared, do some price comparison as well so you’re not going to be left out of pocket. 

Be aware of the discount days 

By discount days, we’re largely talking about Black Friday. Of course, there are all sorts of caveats regarding this day (or week, as it has become) of the year. Some retailers have become rather sneaky and mark up items in the weeks leading up to the occasion, creating prices that aren’t actually that discounted. This is where the research phase is again paramount. As well as understanding the true price of items, be aware that Black Friday tends to benefit some industries more than others. While a lot of stores have jumped on the bandwagon, it would be fair to say that electronics often have the best deals attached to them. As such, decide if it’s worth waiting for your discount day of choice, or if you would rather shop further in advance. 

Try and shop alone 

This won’t work for all of you, but we really can’t preach the importance of shopping alone in most cases. Again, some of you will want the company and perhaps a soundboard to check gift ideas with. However, if you’ve done your research and you know what shops you are about to embark on, going alone will save valuable time. You can press ahead, without delay, and get out of those busy high-streets at record speeds.