Love the rush of the Black Friday madness the day after Thanksgiving? Are you the type who likes to stand in line early waiting for your favorite shop to open? At the Law Offices of Matthew C. Hines, we know how you feel! For this reason, we’d like to offer you some safety tips to make for your best Black Friday shopping experience!
- Park in a well lit, open area: People are often too busy trying to find the closest parking spot when in actuality, you should be looking ‘over’ your head to find the best lit parking area. Also, be sure it’s in an open area that’s clearly visible from the front of the store, if possible. Also, don’t park behind a big van or truck, which would hide your vehicle.
- Hide all valuables and purchases in your trunk: The first thing a thief likes to do is ‘survey’ the vehicle, looking for valuables through the window. If there’s nothing to see, the thief will likely move onto a vehicle that does have valuables on display.
- Keep your Purse strapped to your body or your wallet in your front pocket: Why make life easy for purse-snatchers or pocket-pickers? Don’t become a target. Stealing a wallet is much easier when it’s in your back-pocket.
- Stay off of your phone: Phones are distractions, and could cause you to be careless. Whether it’s leaving a bag behind, slipping and falling on a rogue object left behind, or not noticing that you’re being pick-pocketed.
- Shop with one single credit card: Keep only one credit card in your wallet, in case you lose it or it gets stolen. Also, it’s much easier to track all your purchases from one statement.
- Don’t shop alone: Sometimes this isn’t always possible, but if you could, try bringing someone along with you. Agree to a meetup spot in case you can’t find each other, and try to color-coordinate to make it easier to find each other.
- Heading to the parking lot? Take precaution: Be completely aware of your surroundings. Walk with a crowd, have an employee escort you to your car. Have your keys in your hand ready to open your door.
Online Shopping
If you’re the type who rather just shop from home and avoid all the madness, here are some tips to follow:
- Shop on secure websites only: When shopping online, be sure that the website is secured and safe. Look for the closed padlock in the browser bar or a url that begins with ‘https’ and not ‘http.’
- Use only one credit card: Keep all your purchases on one credit card. Should your card get compromised, you only have to make one cancellation call.
- Too good to be true? Then stay away. If you see items that sound just way too good to be true, then follow your instinct. Do your due diligence to read reviews from sellers.
