Black Eye Friday - How to Avoid It

To me, Black Friday put a big black eye on the holiday season, but obviously many are, or were, happy about the fact that the retail industry wanted to test the shopping-dollar waters while creating a sense of urgency.

The label, Black Friday, has been around, supposedly beginning in Philadelphia in the 60's and there are several versions of why it still has such as ominous tone to it.

Some time in the 90's the fuse was lit on a national level and then the bomb exploded some time early this century.

Retailers, mainly large chains and big boxes began ruining employee's (and their family's) holidays and driving people to chaotic storming of store front doors and herds of elbowing and shoving crazed shoppers stampeding to the stuffed toy section (poor Elmo) - possibly leading to a personal black eye.

In light of this, there is a wonderful opportunity, from now until Christmas, to patronize your favorite local retailers to shop for those gifts you want to see up close and touch, taste or smell. And, perhaps, by avoiding the craziness you may possibly feel something reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting - good luck with that. You're holiday spirit may have to come from inside yourself, but that's not such a bad thing. There's always some eggnog nearby to be found.

Then there's something positive you can thank the Internet for - the ability to somewhat easily shop for those gifts you don't need to see up close, hold, smell or taste. Almost all those retailers who offer these You'll Never Get a Better Deal specials (Yeah, right?) are now offering them on-line. And then there's Cyber Monday which has become Cyber A Few Days or So, just like Black A Few Weeks or So.

Well, we're making on-line shopping more convenient and rewarding with Cashback at SHOP.COM®. Making shopping even easier is the ability to shop from hundreds of well-known merchants using OneCart®, allowing you to shop through one central and secure account and only having to check out once. You can also shop directly at other partner merchants and still take advantage of other SHOP.COM features. These aren't obscure retailers, but many you are familiar with and some new ones you will discover by searching for a particular product and being able to compare prices side-by-side.

For additional savings, also check out the following features and programs:

Cashback - cashback rewards of up to 50% of purchase price
ShopBuddy - for active on-line shoppers, couponers and those who simply love to save money.
SHOP Local - support local businesses while saving.
Raise - discounts off gift cards
Hot Deals - go figure

IMPORTANT! You can order most any of our 100's of exclusive health and nutrition, skin care, anti-aging and cosmetic products (There's more.) and receive 10% Off by going to www.shopdougi.com and signing up. It can take less than two minutes to do so. This will also allow you to receive sweet e-mail offers and discounts throughout the holiday season.

After doing so you can use Coupon Code: 10OFFMA to receive 10% Off on these exclusive products.

The exclusive (health) products I focus on are conveniently listed at www.healthdougi.com. All of our other exclusive products may be found here.

If you ever have any questions please use the Contact Us feature to the right or while on any of our sites.

Enjoy the Holidays!