Black Friday lines are brutal, but every year customers brave the elements to wait long hours for the best deals. If you want to score bargain booty but would rather skip the lines, apps like Zaarly offer a solution: hire a minion to wait.
Zaarly offered up a how-to guide for using its service to "hack" Black Friday. TaskRabbit, which allows you to outsource your errands, is also fielding Black Friday requests -- everything from companies looking for people to hand out fliers to the traditional "wait in line" appeal.
One catch: Neither site has a mechanism yet for outsourcing payments to a gofer. So you'll need to find a recruit who is trusting enough -- and flush enough -- to pay for your items upfront and hand them over after you cough up the money.
Zaarly has an escrow system designed to protect both sides. When you agree to a deal you pay for it, using your credit card, through Zaarly's app. The cash is then held in escrow for 48 hours.
"If they don't deliver the item, then you let us know and we won't release the funds," says Zaarly spokesman Mark Pasetsky. "That's why the escrow period is great. You pay the person; they have the funds; and then once you get you item, they'll be released."
For these shoppers, Black Friday means serious business -- and savings. Here's their plan of attack
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