I went down a couple of years ago with a few friends. It was NUTS!!!! At the major stores....box stores.....you wait in the freezing cold, in lines, for the store to open...and usually, hours before. Then, when the store opens, you wait some more to get in (depending on when you got there). When you get inside.....it's a FREAKING madhouse!!!! Absolutely insane. And honestly, I haven't found stuff to be that good of a deal. Sure, sometimes you can get tv's and stuff cheaper. BUT, if you were someone who waited outside overnight.....you were one of the lucky ones to get those good deals. If you showed up at opening and waited in the lines, and when you finally get in.....there aren't the great deals left....or they are out.
Going into the malls, some of the clothing stores have sales. BUT no different than what you might find before Christmas or on boxing day. I know people like to do Christmas shopping. Hollister had good deals. Aeropostale had better deals at their outlet stores than for black friday in the regular stores.
I went down last year with my mom in late October. We found tons of great stuff on sale and great deals. No black friday. And NO people
It was wonderful. You could walk around, not be pushed. No yelling. No shoving. It was peaceful and a great time.
To spend all the money on going down, having to spend the night to be allowed the money to come back into Canada without paying duty, to me personally, isn't worth it. It was the most frustrating thing I've done. I really enjoyed it though, in October. Was a nice drive. Weather was great. NOT great in Nov....snow storm.
PLUS.....I did buy a computer from Best Buy. 3 years later I had an issue with it. Brought it to a place in Canada to have it fixed. They can't fix it. It's made in the states. Had to take it back to the states to have it fixed. So, while it was a brand that Canada sells, it was manufactured there, and it could NOT be fixed here. Best Buy here would not touch it. Said it would be the same for any electronics sold in the states....I've had friends who have run into the same issue. So that is something to think about as well.
Sorry if that was not what you wanted to hear, it was fun when I went the second time, just NOT black friday....