The Black Friday Tale...

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

Hi! I am Ms Superorganized for the holiday. Ok, so maybe it has little to do with organization and ALOT to do with bad finances. I started my holiday shopping in January (sale at Kohls where I got gifts for Mom & Dad) and continued on through the year (brother is going to love the shirt I got him...but it is short sleeved!). So my holiday shopping is done. (Of course there is always room for one more gift).

Plus, I work in the service industry, so we are always open. Ok, so I am in management, so I didn't have to work yesterday, but today is not a holiday and since I'm going to WDW next week, I didn't have the vacation time to take today off (plus it's quiet here so I can hopefully get a lot done before I go away -- could get more done with my boss had been in this week so that I could get his approval on some things and get those projects going while I'm gone, but...).

With all that said, all this talk about Black Friday on this board (and the budget board) had me really interested. I've been checking out links and prices and stuff and yesterday specficially asked my dad to pick up a newspaper for me when he got one for himself. DH and I combed through the tons of circulars (and read the paper too). There are some good deals out there, but again I have to work, and do we really NEED any of this stuff? (The $9 slow cooker at Home Depot was tempting, but DH asked me what I would use it for [well I'm sure I would use it, if I had one] and then I saw it was pretty small. If you're going to do the slow cook thing, don't you want to do bigger items so you have left overs for dinner for the week).

Any way the only thing DH saw was at Staples -- and he had gotten an email from them days before about it. So he was thinking of getting up with me and walking to Staples when I went to work.

But today it was supposed to rain (and it is raining). And the one item he wanted turned into several after he saw that there were 5 items he could use that were "free" (after rebates). There was no way he could carry them. So I figured I would drive him up there, we'd run it, get the stuff, run out and I'd get to work around my usual time or maybe a tad later.

Both of us had a restless night (visions of cd jewel cases dancing in our heads???) and got up at 4 AM (I should inject that for no good reason I woke up at 5:30 yesterday morning and couldn't get back to sleep). He fiddled around the house, I got ready for work. (Wearing my red holiday Mickey zippered sweater that I got on sale LAST YEAR at KMart, but never wore because it was after the holidays).

I decided we should head out around 5:40 for 6 AM opening. I had no idea if there would be the famous black Friday crowds I had heard about on these boards or not.

Staples is about 5 minutes from us. We pull up. There is no one else in the lot. But the employees are inside. Walking back and forth. Starring out at us in our SUV. We have the radio on and we wait.

2 minutes later another car pulls up and parks behind me and to the left.

Then another car pulls up one space away on my right.

Then another car pulls up one space away on my left.

The woman who parked in the spot to my left and behind me moves to the spot directly on my left.

The sharks are moving in.

The employees keep moving about, but stop every time another insane person pulls in.

Another car pulls up.

Another car pulls up.

There is a row of cars/SUVs. All sitting there. All waiting. Some with their headlights on. Some with the circular in hand. Some on the cell phone. All waiting.

The sharks all sit and wait.

More activity inside the store. We are trying to guess which one is the manager that will actually open the gate.

Someone gets out of their car...

But wait it is just an employee.

The manager goes to unlock the first (inner gate). Car doors fly open and every heads for the front of the store.

We're no fools, we are in the front...surrounded by about 20 other people all who want to shop at Staples at 6 AM.

DH is really no fool. Though the first gate may be open, the manager has not opened the next one, but DH is checking out the positioning of the "free" items. He instructs me to pick up the shredder and the cds, he will go for the other items.

The crowd grows restless and 6 AM comes and goes...(hey, it's 6:01 and I have to get in and then get to work...open the darn gate!).

The manager SLOWLY opens the left side of the gate. Then opens the right side. Then moves the track...and then finally...gets the automatic door working and in we go!

There's a rush to the table where the "free" stuff is. I grab the CDs and the jewel cases. DH goes off in search of the DVD burner and some DVDs while I hunt down the paper shredder.

The paper shredder is not in the paper shredder aisle! It's 6:05! I need to move it.

Find the paper shredder up front (but not near the table with the other "free" stuff).

DH goes to get on line.

I struggle with the paper shredder to get to his line (which is of course the furtherest away from where the shredders are located).

Person ahead of DH pays for items (getting tons of receipts and mail in thingies).

Cashier notices she is running out of register tape (how can this be? It's only 6:07 AM).

DH makes his purchases. But then the register tape runs out!

Cashier asks another employee to get her more tape. Person she asks, SLOWLY lumbers across the store to get the tape. SLOWLY gets the tape. SLOWLY makes her way back to the register.

DH completes his purchase and gets his tons of receipts with mail in rebate receipts.

I make my purchases. I get tons of receipts with mail in rebate receipts.

We both struggle with our purchases to make our way out of the store (and NO, we weren't the first ones out).

Alarm goes off.

There is no way in H E double hockey sticks I am going back in.

We put our stuff in the back of the car (ok, SUV).

Another family struggles with their purchases coming out of the store and the alarms goes off. They foolishly stand there. And stand there as I pull away.

Mission complete and I miraculously get a green light at the shopping plaza exit (which NEVER happens).

Buzz on home. Bring purchases inside. Kiss DH and head back out to work! And get here by 6:45!

Woo hoo!

My first black friday adventure is completed.

Now if I can just get off of work next year...

 

[Pop Daddy]

Originally posted by Annie&Hallie'sMom
Hi! I am Ms Superorganized for the holiday. Ok, so maybe it has little to do with organization and ALOT to do with bad finances. I started my holiday shopping in January (sale at Kohls where I got gifts for Mom & Dad) and continued on through the year (brother is going to love the shirt I got him...but it is short sleeved!). So my holiday shopping is done. (Of course there is always room for one more gift).

Plus, I work in the service industry, so we are always open. Ok, so I am in management, so I didn't have to work yesterday, but today is not a holiday and since I'm going to WDW next week, I didn't have the vacation time to take today off (plus it's quiet here so I can hopefully get a lot done before I go away -- could get more done with my boss had been in this week so that I could get his approval on some things and get those projects going while I'm gone, but...).

With all that said, all this talk about Black Friday on this board (and the budget board) had me really interested. I've been checking out links and prices and stuff and yesterday specficially asked my dad to pick up a newspaper for me when he got one for himself. DH and I combed through the tons of circulars (and read the paper too). There are some good deals out there, but again I have to work, and do we really NEED any of this stuff? (The $9 slow cooker at Home Depot was tempting, but DH asked me what I would use it for [well I'm sure I would use it, if I had one] and then I saw it was pretty small. If you're going to do the slow cook thing, don't you want to do bigger items so you have left overs for dinner for the week).

Any way the only thing DH saw was at Staples -- and he had gotten an email from them days before about it. So he was thinking of getting up with me and walking to Staples when I went to work.

But today it was supposed to rain (and it is raining). And the one item he wanted turned into several after he saw that there were 5 items he could use that were "free" (after rebates). There was no way he could carry them. So I figured I would drive him up there, we'd run it, get the stuff, run out and I'd get to work around my usual time or maybe a tad later.

Both of us had a restless night (visions of cd jewel cases dancing in our heads???) and got up at 4 AM (I should inject that for no good reason I woke up at 5:30 yesterday morning and couldn't get back to sleep). He fiddled around the house, I got ready for work. (Wearing my red holiday Mickey zippered sweater that I got on sale LAST YEAR at KMart, but never wore because it was after the holidays).

I decided we should head out around 5:40 for 6 AM opening. I had no idea if there would be the famous black Friday crowds I had heard about on these boards or not.

Staples is about 5 minutes from us. We pull up. There is no one else in the lot. But the employees are inside. Walking back and forth. Starring out at us in our SUV. We have the radio on and we wait.

2 minutes later another car pulls up and parks behind me and to the left.

Then another car pulls up one space away on my right.

Then another car pulls up one space away on my left.

The woman who parked in the spot to my left and behind me moves to the spot directly on my left.

The sharks are moving in.

The employees keep moving about, but stop every time another insane person pulls in.

Another car pulls up.

Another car pulls up.

There is a row of cars/SUVs. All sitting there. All waiting. Some with their headlights on. Some with the circular in hand. Some on the cell phone. All waiting.

The sharks all sit and wait.

More activity inside the store. We are trying to guess which one is the manager that will actually open the gate.

Someone gets out of their car...

But wait it is just an employee.

The manager goes to unlock the first (inner gate). Car doors fly open and every heads for the front of the store.

We're no fools, we are in the front...surrounded by about 20 other people all who want to shop at Staples at 6 AM.

DH is really no fool. Though the first gate may be open, the manager has not opened the next one, but DH is checking out the positioning of the "free" items. He instructs me to pick up the shredder and the cds, he will go for the other items.

The crowd grows restless and 6 AM comes and goes...(hey, it's 6:01 and I have to get in and then get to work...open the darn gate!).

The manager SLOWLY opens the left side of the gate. Then opens the right side. Then moves the track...and then finally...gets the automatic door working and in we go!

There's a rush to the table where the "free" stuff is. I grab the CDs and the jewel cases. DH goes off in search of the DVD burner and some DVDs while I hunt down the paper shredder.

The paper shredder is not in the paper shredder aisle! It's 6:05! I need to move it.

Find the paper shredder up front (but not near the table with the other "free" stuff).

DH goes to get on line.

I struggle with the paper shredder to get to his line (which is of course the furtherest away from where the shredders are located).

Person ahead of DH pays for items (getting tons of receipts and mail in thingies).

Cashier notices she is running out of register tape (how can this be? It's only 6:07 AM).

DH makes his purchases. But then the register tape runs out!

Cashier asks another employee to get her more tape. Person she asks, SLOWLY lumbers across the store to get the tape. SLOWLY gets the tape. SLOWLY makes her way back to the register.

DH completes his purchase and gets his tons of receipts with mail in rebate receipts.

I make my purchases. I get tons of receipts with mail in rebate receipts.

We both struggle with our purchases to make our way out of the store (and NO, we weren't the first ones out).

Alarm goes off.

There is no way in H E double hockey sticks I am going back in.

We put our stuff in the back of the car (ok, SUV).

Another family struggles with their purchases coming out of the store and the alarms goes off. They foolishly stand there. And stand there as I pull away.

Mission complete and I miraculously get a green light at the shopping plaza exit (which NEVER happens).

Buzz on home. Bring purchases inside. Kiss DH and head back out to work! And get here by 6:45!

Woo hoo!

My first black friday adventure is completed.

Now if I can just get off of work next year...

long post

 

[Deb & Bill]

This was also my first Black Friday shopping event. We decided on Thursday that we would look at slot car racing sets for son at Toys R Us this morning. I had the day off, but husband had to work. So we got dressed and drove over to TRU. We got there about 6:30 and the lot was entirely full. Every checkout had a line about 30 or 40 shoppers long. We checked out the race sets, found one we liked and decide to order on line.

Headed over to the mall to get the free Disney mini-snow globe at JCPenney. Got two of them ( it was only about 6:40 by this time). Not all the stores were open, but thought we might check out the KBee Toys to see if they had any different slot car racing sets' plus check out the Game Boy Advance games they had.

Even though the mall wasn't that busy, the KBT was pretty full (even for the small size of the store). Police officers and an elf directed traffic in one way and out another. They offered large plastic bags to put whatever you selected in the store( no shopping carts). The line had about 40 people in it. (only one checkout - this is a really small store).

We left the store, checked out Bath & Body Works (antibacterials four/$10) and left.

Dropped husband off at work by 7:45 and got home a little while later. Ordered by slot racing set on line (should be delivered next week) and I got free shipping on it.

We were really surprised when we left the mall and it was light outside. It was pitch dark when we entered.

 

[Scratch42]

At my previous job it was mandatory that I get this Friday off!LOL

Now, because of Payroll and such, no can do!

We would get up at 3:00 a.m., do the three "S's" and drive down to Buffalo just in time for the stores to Open! Then we would shop till we drop! Spend the night and then continue all day Satruday!

Yeah, sure we only spent $50.00 Cdn!

Happy Shopping Everybody!

Scratch

 

[wuv tigger]

I went shopping after a quick recheck @ the MD's for my bronchitis.

TF: We are ALL on the mend. We now hope & pray that we stay healthy for our trip to OKW in Jan. 04.

Went to Kohl's 50% off toys Fisher Price, Little Tykes, Playdough etc. It was a MADHOUSE! I had to wait at the end of the check out lines to get a cart. Found some great toys for our dd's, nieces & nephews along with gifts for upcoming baby showers.

Got my 50% + 15% off for being in the store by 11 am. I GAVE the cashier the wrong coupon (mailed to me) which was good through 12/13. She should have wrung up the 15 % off just for being in the store. NOW I have to go back to see if I can get the coupon adjusted so I can use it with the $10 coupon I received for spending $50 & which to be used on any purchase the 1st week of Dec.

I brought 2 bags of toys home for $50.00

I also went to Hallmark & used my Hallmark club card along w/ the flyer. Bought 3 cards & got the singing snowmen for 1/2 price, bought 2 Mom's ornaments, 2 Disney princess picture ornaments for our 2 dd's & for purchasing 3 cards I received a free Santa ornament.

After I finished my purchases, they gave me a beautiful holiday bag (which I can use again) filled with free gifts. It had A Christmas book, box of thank you note cards, pack of Holiday cards, 120 holiday address/return address computer labels, Silver plated hinged photo frame & another ornament. That really made my day!

I know where to shop next year on black Friday ... HALLMARK!

Now I am off to rest so my lungs will heal. That shopping sure made me feel good!

 

[Tony-NJ]

first black friday I didn't go out shopping! NO I'm not sick or anything!

 

[Big V]

Set the alarm for 3:30 this morning! Went to Wal-Mart first (yes for the GameCube). Went home and dropped off all the loot from there and then ran to Circuit City. From CC went to Toys-R-Us. We were hungry after T-R-Us so we stopped at the IHOP and had breakfast. Very good! I had the Country fried steak skillet and DW had some kind of omlet. Then we went to Target, Big Lots and back to Wal-mart for some things we couldn't find at the other stores. Oh yea, we stopped at Office Depot after Circuit City, but the lines were so long at the checkout, we just walked out of there. Got back home at about 1 P.M. and took about an hour nap! I love to go shopping on Black Friday!