5 types of Black Friday shoppers: Which are you?

Courtesy of DaveRamsey.com. Hear The Dave Ramsey Show on Sirius Ch. 145, XM Ch. 207 and online Ch. 790 weekdays at 2 pm ET.

Black Friday brings out almost as much crazy as a full moon.

The day after Thanksgiving has practically become a national holiday with the hype it generates. Stores of all types hold special discount sales and promotions intended to get everyone excited about the Christmas season kickoff and get you spending like . . . well, like crazy.

So, should you decide to partake of a madness that closely resembles Times Square on New Year’s Eve multiplied by the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, what other shoppers are you up against?

Here are five of the most common shoppers you’ll see:

1. The Family
There are a couple of subgroups here. Either the one where screaming, tired kids are brought along while the parent desperately tries to find a particular item at a bargain, or the ones with SEAL Team 6-like coordination who aim to grab all of the assigned items before heading to the extraction point (i.e. the cash register).

2. The Hoarder
It’s Black Friday, not Y2K. This person is reminiscent of the guy who felt the need to barricade himself in a bunker in the middle of the woods with 20 years’ worth of freeze-dried chipped beef. The hoarder seems paranoid about not taking full advantage of Black Friday and attempts to grab every last one of a particular sales item. Then after the Friday flurry subsides, they’ll either bring back all the extras they don’t need or sell them online.

3. The Planner
They know the store. They know the route. They know what is where, and they don’t spend too much time basking in the glory of grabbing an item off the shelf because they are too busy heading to the next one. Better be quick if you’re up against one.

4. The Action Seekers
These people are more obstruction than competition. They like the energy of being in the middle of the madness, though they may only be shopping for a DVD. They tend to stand out in the crowd because they are the only ones with a smile on their face. (But if they aren’t careful, another shopper may wipe it off for them.)

5. The Winger
They are as off-the-cuff as a lost button. They see an item that looks like it would make a good gift, and they grab it. Boom. Christmas shopping done. We should all be so lucky.

As dangerous as the Black Friday circus is, there is yet one more danger to look out for this Christmas season — shopping without a budget. People who hit the Black Friday sales without a plan overspend and end up in a mood that’s more Scrooge than Santa!

Used with permission from DaveRamsey.com

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

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