By Yuen Wa Ng
Shopping online on Black Friday might seem like a great way to avoid the huge crowds amid chilly weather, to get pre-Black Friday deals and to give you more time enjoying turkeys. Still, many shoppers found compelling reasons to leave their homes.
Below, some shoppers debunk some common reasons for avoiding Black Friday, telling us why they choose to participate in the madness instead of going online:
Online shopping is easier and more convenient
For Zubair Syed, 19, hanging out with friend on this holiday is more special: “Come with friends on Black Friday, stores like Macy is really fun, you can get all kinds of stuff in one building,” he said. People can shop online anytime and anywhere, he noted.
Hong Chi, 25, a student from Arkansas, concurred: “Black Friday you should get on the street and wait in the crowds with friends.”
You can find out everything you need to know about a product online
“Shopping in-person allows me to try the jeans on,” said Patuicia Ortiz, 30, from Coney Island. She bought five sweaters and two pair of jeans for $80, she said, and “the crowds here aren’t that bad.”
Arlynn Cabello, who said she had shopped on Black Friday every year since she was young, added: “I don’t like to buy things online because I can’t feel it myself and hold it and try it on myself. In Victoria’s Secret I can know the exact size I am buying,”
The bargains online are as good as those found in-store
Jose Sanchez, 62, the first doorbuster outside Best Buy on 14th Street two days before Thanksgiving, said he never went online and he was going to purchase a computer for $199 and a television for his daughter for $178.
Joana Rodriguez, 21, with her 4-year-old son and 9-year-old sister, arrived at the Best Buy at noon and said she wanted to buy a TV for $180 that was originally sold for $600 and was not available online.
