Are you ready for the shopping frenzy known as “Black Friday”? Don’t let the excitement make you confuse the store warranties with actual insurance coverage. Make sure you are calm before you drive, so you won’t get into an accident. Problems on Black Friday could result in insurance claims.
It certainly feels as though Black Friday came early this year. Many retailers started revealing their Black Friday deals shortly after the trick-or-treaters returned home this Halloween. Since then, it seems like there have been extra, “early”, sales going on each and every weekend.
Retailers are trying very hard to push shoppers into a frenzy. They are hoping it will translate into huge profits for the stores on Black Friday. One of the easiest ways for retailers to make a profit is to sell product warranties to consumers. The consumer hands over some extra dollars to the sales clerk at the point of sale. Most of the time, people forget that they have these warranties, or they lose the paperwork. This means that the stores get money that they never have to pay back out.
Keep in mind that warranties are not the same thing as insurance. Warranties come with an expiration date. If the product breaks after that date, then you are out of luck. Homeowners insurance will cover the cost of repairing or replacing broken, or stolen, items. Warranties, simply put, will not.
Be extremely careful while driving on Black Friday. The streets will be full of drivers who are focused on the sales, and attempting to rush to the store as fast as they can. There is a good chance that these drivers will be sleepy, since they either got up early, or stayed up late, in order to do their shopping. Sleepy drivers can be as dangerous as drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
In other words, these drivers are not going to be watching where they are going. They may blow through stop signs or red lights, in an effort to get to the store quicker than the other guy can. It is never safe to text, or surf the web, while driving. There will be some drivers who cannot resist the temptation to check the internet, one more time, to check the sale of price of something they want to buy.
There is a very high chance that you could end up in an auto accident due to one of these distracted drivers. Hopefully, that driver has auto insurance, to cover the cost of the damage she did to your car. It is not going to be fun to try and contact your car insurance company on Black Friday, so that you can file a claim.
Image by John Henderson on Flickr