With the best bargain shopping day of the year nearly here (Nov. 23), shoppers are advised to adjust their shopping habits to the reality of Black Friday’s new sale schedule.

“Black Friday now starts on Thursday,” explained Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org. And for the first time, some stores are staggering their doorbusters, releasing different ones at different times. For Walmart, it is at 8pm and 10pm on Thursday and 5am Friday, while at Sears it is at 8pm and 4am. “If you don’t read their circulars carefully, you may show up at the store either hours early or hours late,” said Dworsky.

Consumer World offers these holiday shopping tips to help bag the best bargains:

1. Read the Ads: Preview the Black Friday sale circulars now at bfads.net, and get a list of sale items at all stores by category, such as all HDTVs, at blackfriday.gottadeal.com . Check local newspapers on Thanksgiving Day. They will be chock-full of circulars and last minute deals. Friday’s papers will include additional sales. Get on retailers’ email lists, check their websites for additional unannounced bargains, and look for deals and coupons listed on their Facebook pages.

2. Evaluate the Deals: Not all Black Friday advertised items are great deals. Others will become available the weekend before Thanksgiving, on Cyber Monday, or in mid-December. To separate the ho-hum from the good deals, use several of Consumer World’s pricing tools, such as the Price Checker at ConsumerWorld.org (to compare prices at many online stores instantly), and PriceHistories.com (to compare today’s price for an item to what was charged over the past six months). If shopping online, find out the total price including shipping and tax (if any), and what the reputation of the seller is using BizRate.com or ResellerRatings.com .

3. Research the Right Product: A low price on a lousy product is no bargain. Check websites where professionals evaluate products, such as Consumer Reports, Steves-Digicams.com (for cameras), PCMagazine.com (computers), best/worst toy lists, etc. Also, nothing beats reading customer reviews by real owners of the products you are thinking of buying. Check Epinions.com, and read the user comments posted after most product descriptions at Amazon.com.

4. Save with "Triple Plays": To save the most, combine the primary ways to save: buy items at a good sale price, use percent-off/dollars-off coupons offered by some stores to lower that price even more, and look for items that also have a cash back rebate.

5. Be an Early Bird: On Thanksgiving, Walmart, Sears, Kmart, and Toys“R”Us will open most stores at 8pm; Target at 9pm; and Best Buy, Kohl’s and Macy’s open at midnight. Most others open at 5am or 6am Friday. Plot your route from store to store based on store opening times, and since quantities of the hottest deals are very limited, arrive before the doors open. Send family members to different stores if opening times conflict.

Look for better "doorbusters" including: a Vizio 60” LED Smart TV for $688, LG blu-ray player for $38, 700-ct sheet sets $19.96, and men’s Dearfoam slippers for $6 (Walmart); Kenmore French door stainless refrigerator $1299.99, and Kenmore over-the-range stainless microwave $149.99 (Sears); Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone for $0.96 (Sam’s Club), $48-$49.99 (Best Buy, Radio Shack); small kitchen appliances valued to $40 for $9.99 after $10 rebate (Kohl’s, Macy’s, $8 @JCP no rebate), Procter-Silex small appliances $4.99 (Kmart); 150+ toys 50% off (Toys“R”Us); Canon Powershot Elph 110 camera $129.99 (Best Buy, Office Depot); $10 off $40 clothing purchase coupon (Sears); $10 off a $25 purchase coupon (Macy’s); Seagate 3-TB external hard drive $99.99 (Best Buy, Costco); and 13-pc hard anodized cookware set $100 (JC Penney).

6. Beat the Early Birds: Sears is letting its reward club members buy some doorbusters starting on Sunday, November 18. To plan for the real Black Friday, scope-out key retailers on Wednesday before Thanksgiving to learn each store’s floor plan in advance. Avoid the crowds by ordering online since some Black Friday deals may be available on Thanksgiving Day (e.g. JCP, Kohl’s) or early Friday. Be warned, however, that stores are not generally good about indicating which items will also be available online.

7. Check the Return Policy: Before buying, find out the store’s return policy. While many stores have extended their return deadlines into January, others are clamping down by imposing restocking fees on certain categories of items, or by using a blacklisting database or returns tracking system to deny refunds to returns abusers.

8. Get a Gift Receipt: Make returns easier for gift recipients by asking the store for a gift receipt and include it in the gift box. Without a receipt, a refund may be denied outright, or may be limited to only an equal exchange, or to a merchandise credit for the lowest price the item has sold for in the recent past.

9. Use the Right Credit Card: Certain credit cards offer valuable free benefits. For example, don't be pressured into buying a service contract when you can get up to an extra year of warranty coverage free just by using most gold or platinum credit cards. Ask your credit card issuer what length warranties qualify for an extra year of coverage, if any. Some credit cards also offer a return protection guarantee (they will refund the purchase price within 90 days if the store will not), or a sale price guarantee (they will give you back the difference if an item goes on sale within 60 days of purchase).

10. Save More with Price-Match Guarantees: Keep checking the prices of the items you buy. Since many stores offer a price protection guarantee, you may be entitled to get back some additional money if the seller or a competitor offers a lower price before Christmas. Here is our 2012 study comparing major retailers’ price-matching policies.

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Consumer World®, launched in 1995, is a public service, non-commercial consumer resource guide with over 2000 links to everything "consumer" on the Internet. Edgar Dworsky, an avid bargain hunter, is the founder of Consumer World, editor of MousePrint.org – an educational site devoted to exposing the fine print loopholes in advertising, and a former Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.

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