The holiday shopping season officially kicks off this week with Black Friday. Prepare yourself for the joys - and horrors – of shopping with this collection of retail-centric movies!

By Harrison Pierce

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

For those who have maxed out their credit cards (or are about to), take a tip from filmdom’s most famous window shopper, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), who proves you don’t have to buy fancy things to feel good when you can simply marvel at them through a window.

Pretty Woman (1990)

Get ready for the best - and worst - in customer service with this rom-com classic. When Hollywood hooker Vivian (Julia Roberts) first attempts high-end shopping on Rodeo Drive, she’s snubbed by the snooty saleswomen. But when her client, wealthy businessman Edward (Richard Gere), learns of Vivian’s mistreatment, he sends her back out for the most triumphantly redemptive shopping spree in film history.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

George A. Romero’s horror classic offers the wish-fulfilling scenario of an abandoned mall where all of the merchandise is free. The only catch? You’ll have to fend off flesh-eating zombies trying to break in and consume you.

Clueless (1995)

Before she was America’s most famous vegan, Alicia Silverstone was Beverly Hills High’s most popular teenager, Cher Horowitz. Although Cher’s colorful and privileged life might seem like something out of a Noxzema commercial, even she suffers bouts of the blues. Her solution? A little retail therapy at the local mall.

Mallrats (1995)

The comedy that proves retail therapy isn’t just for the ladies. After getting dumped by their girlfriends, best friends Brodie (Jason Lee) and TS Quint (Jeremy London) decide to lick their wounds at the local mall. Sure, they don’t really buy anything, but their spirits are revived by wacky encounters with an Easter Bunny, a fortuneteller with three nipples and, of course, Jay and Silent Bob.

Scenes from a Mall (1991)

Woody Allen and Bette Midler star as a married couple that decides to spend their wedding anniversary shopping. But what begins as a harmless mall excursion quickly turns into an extended – and very public - marital feud. If shopping tends to make you and your loved ones fight, you’re probably better off staying at home. (At the very least, you’ll avoid being followed by an annoying mime.)

Jingle All the Way (1996)

Christmas Eve shopping is more of a comic nightmare for Arnold Schwarzenegger in this holiday comedy about a father desperately trying to buy his son the season’s must-have toy: the Turbo-Man action figure. Watching Jingle All the Way is guaranteed to have a therapeutic effect for any parent who has ever had to claw, kick or fight off a pack of angry Santas to procure his or her child a Cabbage Patch Kid, Tickle Me Elmo or Furby.

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)

Of course, not every on-screen shopper is so selfless. When Isla Fisher’s Becky Bloomwood hits Manhattan’s high-end Fifth Avenue boutiques, she’s out to satisfy her own personal need for the latest in Gucci and Prada. It’s all fun and credit card games until the debt collector comes calling!

While She Was Out (2009)

Poor Kim Basinger should have stayed home in this gritty little thriller about a suburban housewife who runs out on Christmas Eve to buy wrapping paper at the local shopping center and ends up running for her life following a violent encounter in the parking lot with a gang of sadistic bullies.