Thanksgiving is just around the corner and so is America’s favorite shopping day, Black Friday.

And for AIC’s international student community, it’s a new world out there. Many are looking forward to their first post-Thanksgiving Day shopping sprees.

Even though the holiday is considered one of the most important in the country, being all about bringing families together and thanking for the great happenings in life, much of the population eagerly awaits for the day after – Black Friday.

Most people use the opportunity to do Christmas shopping – which is very much worth doing it when comparing to prices in December – with that, taking advantage of the discounted prices of various stores, which are sometimes so low that stores don’t make profit out of the sales, but just in order to entice audiences, they do so.

Additionally, some even release their ads so the public can go prepared, while others don’t, to try and create buzz around it.

Many stores open their doors in the early hours of the morning. Thus, crowds start to anxiously line up in front of their windows as soon as possible – sometimes, even spending the night there just be the first ones to enter and get all of the desired products out of their lists.

However, with the growth of Internet and online shopping, things have changed quite a bit in the past few years. Not many are keen on having to wake up very early and staying outside in a cold weather and basically having to dispute with others to get what they want.

So their solution is online shopping.

The Monday right after Thanksgiving is now called Cyber Monday. It is an online shopping holiday, meaning it is an easier way to buy discounted items while not leaving home or even at work and because of that, it is becoming more popular every year.

The deals sometimes are not as good as Black Friday, yet still worth it; plus, there is free shipping and no need to worry about low-stock or products selling out in a blink of an eye.

Three international freshmen share how they are planning to do their shopping on their first Black Friday experience, after hearing all about the holiday.

Ada Guilera Martinez, of Spain, spoke of her holiday shopping pereferences.

“I prefer going to the stores, even though is going to be crowded,” said Guilera Martinez. “When I buy clothes, I like to try them on and make sure it’s my size and looks good on me.”

Anniina Sankoh, from Helsinki, Finland, also has a similar opinion.

“I’m going to the stores, I want to go to the fitting room and see how the clothes look on me,” Sankoh said. “Ordering online, you never know if it fits you.”

Josefine Stendhal, from Boras, Sweden, also likes to go to stores and try on her clothes, however, on Black Friday, she will be shopping online.

“When you are in the store with so many people, they just run around, it’s so messy,” Stendhal said.

The Internet has been doing a nice job bringing customers to online shopping, but even though there’s chaos at the malls, people still like going to malls and looking for products the traditional way.

So, whichever method feels like it works better for you, enjoy your shopping spree!