I was off work for Black Friday this year. I have no idea what came over me... maybe it was the potential for free gift cards at my favorite store... or temporary insanity... but I decided to take part in the madness.
I got up at 6:45 AM on Thanksgiving day and went to work. Came home at 4:30, jumped online to check out the BF sales, made my plans and my list. Hubby got home from his brother's about 9:00 and was greeted with "We're going to be in line at Boscov's for the opening, you might want to grab a nap!" Surprisingly, he did not protest AT ALL, which is very unlike him (like most males, he hates shopping, and in the past has flat-out refused to leave the house on BF) and proceeded to fall asleep almost immediately. I was still awake at 1:00 AM when I woke him up to get ready to leave. We arrived at the mall about 2 AM, scoped the place out, and planned our strategy. He was to take the rear mall door and I'd cover the front. They opened the doors at 3:15 and the crowd of people ran like mad to Boscov's to line up for the gift cards. (They were giving away, aside from $ store cards, a TV, jewelry, electronics, appliances, and things like Snuggies and so forth.)
When the horde reached the line, my hubby was standing at the front, alone, and a bit shocked at the wall of people descending on him. They'd opened the rear door first (which was much closer) and being the only one there, he'd had time to saunter over, wait around, and even call me 4 times before anyone else arrived. I was too busy moving my butt at a high rate of speed from the other end of the mall to answer the phone. We scored a $ gift card and a throw blanket. Store opened at 5 AM, we did our shopping, noshed on a few snacks the Boscov's crew* had thoughtfully set out, then cruised over to a few other places to check their sales. Hubby was getting into the spirit, so we looked at tools at Sears and hunting stuff at Dick's.
Two places we avoided: Target and Wal-Mart. Both were having seriously mad doorbuster sales but I was in no mood to get killed over $3 appliances or $5 DVDs. On Thursday I had thought, briefly, about lining up for the $198 laptops, but convinced myself that 3 computers in a two-person household was enough already. Instead, we went for breakfast around 7 AM then headed to K-Mart. That place was bananas! Couldn't get out of there fast enough. There should be a "People of K-Mart" website... it might make the Wal-Mart one seem tame in comparison. They didn't have what I wanted anyway. Hubby, being in some sort of sleep-deprived fit of generosity, then agreed to go all the way to the city, 45 minutes away, to another K-Mart and Best Buy. Picked up a not-on-sale bicycle at KM for 20% off after asking a passing manager about it. I suspect she was willing to do anything to get people to buy stuff and get the heck out and leave her alone. Best Buy's checkout line went to the back of the store, where a helpful employee held up a sign so people could find the end. Took me 5 minutes to find what I wanted (half-price cellphone, woot!) and another 25 minutes to check out.
By the time we got home that afternoon, my eyes were crossed, I'd sprained my knee, and my adrenaline + caffeine buzz was gone. I had been awake for 34 hours straight, with 9 of it spent working, at least 3 standing in lines, and 12 on my feet shopping. I crashed hard, then got up Saturday morning to go back to work. Was it worth it? Moneywise, I saved about $200 on things I'd planned to buy anyway. So that was decent. But I plan to do it again just for the RUSH. Damn that was fun!
*A very special thank you to the extremely organized and prepared Boscov's crew... that's how a BF sale should be done.
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