My Black Friday 2012 and Cyber Monday Good Shopping ExperiencesAs billions of us descend on retailers who’ve done their best to be prepared, we’re going to hear negative stories about the shopping experience. That’s to be expected. It’s hard to financially gear up for the season which may or may not happen, I know, I’m a small retailer as well. Still, like most of us, we try our best, but there are times when we just can’t please everyone.

Black Friday 2012 Shopping

But there are also the unexpected great experiences that happen when you least expect it and it’s two of those I want to share today. The first happened on Black Friday as I was shopping in my robe, under a comfy blanket, and in my PJs. That’s the only kind of Black Friday shopping I participate in these days. I worked the day for 5 years at The Disney Store and let me tell you, it’s not a day for the weak!

Anyway, I shopped for a few hours at REI, a store my husband frequents all too often. In fact, the reason I was even shopping on this day is the hubby went to our local REI store a few days before and picked out a pair of $100 rain pants (seriously!) and the very kind gentleman at checkout let him know those exact same pants would be 50% off on Friday. Well, my hubby is one usually ready with the wallet to pay full price. He was persuaded by the man to save his money. Yahoo!

So I did my shopping and I had each of the 3 “kids” pick out their gift so much total was about $450 at half price – perfect! The only problem is, we have a REI membership but I don’t know the number and my husband didn’t have a card. I placed the order anyway and thought I’d miss out on the 10% membership refund. But I decided to email them just in case and I received a reply the next day telling me not only had they updated my order so I’d get the member’s benefit, but they’d also sent me a  new card in the mail! No hassle, no back and forth. They just took care of it and went beyond my expectations.

Cyber Monday Eve Shopping

The second time that’s happened this shopping holiday weekend was with Brookstone. I purchased a pay $25 and get a $50 Brookstone gift certificate from Living Social. I used it within minutes of receiving it and the shopping/checkout couldn’t have been better. But what I loved and what caught my eye, was the email I received with my order confirmation. Here’s what it said,

PLEASE NOTE: The following email may contain information about gifts ordered from Brookstone. If this is a shared email account–and you have not recently placed an order with Brookstone–please do not read further. It would be a shame to spoil a surprise!

I thought that was so thoughtful and totally unexpected. They added blank lines so there was no way to see the info without scrolling down.

These are the two great experiences I’ve had on this the craziest shopping weekend of the year. I thought it’d be fun to focus on the great experiences. There will be plenty of bad ones out there.

Wishing you all the best this holiday season!