Worst Days for Back-To-School Shopping
Do you ever have one of those retail experiences that makes you silent scream, "Never again! I don't need anything. Ever."
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Mine came last August, back-to-school shopping with my daughter in tow. The sound of screeching babies echoed down the aisles. Parents tousled over spiral notebooks and a paltry selection of ballpoint pens and mechanical pencils. Ring binders? Forget about it. A hulking man holding a lit cigarette in one hand and pushing his loaded cart with the other, had just snapped up the last few-and nobody was going to ask that he share. And the check-out lines? Picture advance ticket sales for a Bieber concert.
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Is there a way to avoid the madness? Short answer: Yes. Analyzing information from their over 33 million users between August 1-September, 2012, the location-based social networking site Foursquare predicted the absolute worst days to go back-to-school shopping this year. Their data included check-ins from retailers including department stores, electronic stores, clothing stores, and school/office supply stores. They determined that the retail days to avoid are (organized from most hideous to slightly less heinous):
1. August 18
2. August 11
3. August 4
4. September 2
5. August 25
What if you simply can't avoid those days? Set your alarm clock. "Generally, the best time to shop is the morning," a representative of Foursquare tells Yahoo! Shine. "Late afternoon and evening are peak hours."
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