life, love & laundry
I won’t be doing THAT again
Yes, I was one of those insane crazy delusional greedy frugal folks who hit the pavement today for Black Friday sales. I go every year and always have fun. This year, though, IT.WAS.AWFUL!!!!!
So I had this awesome game plan becuase Toys R Us was going to open at midnight (which, to me, is a lot more palatable than going to sleep and waking up at the crack of dawn!), then head over to Old Navy for their 3am opening, to Sears at 4am, Target at 5am and Ace Hardware (what? We needed Christmas lights!!!) around 7am.
They all had staggered opening times so I thought it would work out wonderfully and I’d be done by morning. I grabbed my possibly very drunk girlfriend and we hit the road.
.Our Toys R Us is located in this big long double strip mall. One side is flanked with Target and the other side is TRU. I can’t really express how far apart these two stores are. Very Far. But we parked and got out and ……Holy Hell in a Hand-basket. The line? Was past Target. This had to be at least a THOUSAND people long. I only needed one thing and I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be a big seller so we turned tail and went to IHOP instead.
An hour later we came back and the line was about half as long. So about 500 people or so.
Instead we headed over to Old Navy….two hours before it opened. There was already a line. So we called it a (failed) night instead drove around to people watch. It’s pretty humorous and a bit scary to see the people in line – at 2am – with their babies and children. People in shorts and tshirts (it was COLD people, mid-40s!!) . The craziest was Best Buy, who did not have huge lines (NOTHING to rival Toys R Us) but had CRAZY tent cities going on. People with card tables (big enough to serve Thanksgiving dinner for a few families!) and 12 person tents and heaters and music and tvs ….you name it! They were in it for the long haul! I can’t imagine what was such a good deal?!?
After dropping my friend back off at home and almost hitting a few herds of deer (apparently they rule the road at 2am) I made one more check on the lines and they seemed appropriately short enough. So I stuck it out and made it inside TRU. I went to go pick up my item only to be told that they had only SIX in stock and had given those six “tickets” to the first six people in line. So much for my assumption that I wasn’t getting a hot ticket item! And man – I never stood a CHANCE!!!!!!!!
So I zoomed over to Old Navy where they had just started letting people in. Their line was moving pretty fast so I was hopeful only to be told at the door that their Promotional Item was in Extremely Limited Quantities and had already been depleted. I was only in it for the free $50 video game so I turned around and left. I was SHOCKED to see that NO ONE else left! Really?!?! Those people were all there for half off tshirts?!?! At 3am?!?!? Wow.
I went home empty-handed and hating Toys R Us and Old Navy. I almost hit some more deer families in the process, and one small skunk. Sleep – all 3 hours of it – never felt so good.
So I guess I sort of liked it when the stores all opened at 7am and no one carried side-arms and there weren’t mobs (to be fair, we have REALLY civil crowds here). That was fun. I’m pretty sure all the major retailers had a meeting and collaborated on a staggered opening schedule. The result? With NO competition, everyone on earth who wanted to shop was all at the same store.
Plus also? CLEARLY the recession is lifting. It was pretty amazing to see the difference on both the consumer and the retailer side from last year to this year. THAT, at least, made me feel pretty hopeful about the economy in general. Even if I was a huge fail. Black Friday totally got the best of me and I met my match. I love a good deal but I will not go out on Thanksgiving and camp out for it. My time is more valuable than that.
Tony and I ended up shopping this morning at a reasonable hour and other than the dreaded Toys R Us (which STILL had insane long lines at NOON!! and NO items left!!!) I think I got everything on my list. No lines, no crowds, still good deals.
I think I figured out the key. Avoid Walmart and Toys R Us at all costs. And no more getting up early! It just isn’t worth it!
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Loved reading about that- sounds crazy. Would be into people watching, though!
Please tell me that is your Christmas card photo? It’s perfect.
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What a nightmare. I tried early morning shopping on BF once. ONCE. No deal is worth that insanity.
Glad to hear the recession is lifting for somebody. We’re still living on a very skinny shoestring.
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I would never go shopping at midnight! You are brave. I hate shopping on BF.
And I think the recession is lifting a little but in CT/NY another round of folks I know were just laid off..I think we have a bit of it left.
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<3 this! People watching sounds like so much fun! Way more than shopping ;)
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November 28th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Michelle – it was actually way more fun than shopping! I think next year I may plan to go out JUST to do that! It would be a lot of fun!
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Yeah, teensy tiny shoestring here, too…needing new clothes soon isn’t helping much! The closest we got to Black Friday was checking some websites at midnight…and we didn’t see anything that exciting. Some day I’ll figure out what the big deal is! :)
Glad you were able to get what you needed anyway though! Crazy lines – holy cow!
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Black Friday shopping is just not my thing. You are a braver(or at least crazier) woman than I am. Someone fired a shot inside a mall and someone else had a gun at a Toys R Us here. No thanks!
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I was another one of the crazies, but we didn’t have the staggered starts quite the way you did. I had wished for midnight openings, but now I guess I’m glad for 5am =). I hit Target, Macy’s and Walmart and still got home by 7:30 with most of the items on my (very short) list. To me, Black Friday just makes it feel like Christmas!
Love the photo BTW!
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