Do you shop on Black Friday???

[crafftygrrl]

I got all my shopping DONE!!!!!

I woke up at 5:15; out the door by 5:30 and was at Leesburg Corner Outlet mall by 6 am.

I went to the Saks Outlet. I had a coupon for 25% off my entire bill. As soon as I walked in and went over to the Ladies cashmete sweater section, I noticed someone left their handbag on a pile of sweaters. I lifted the handbag and asked if it was anyone''s -- No one answered, so I brought it over to Customer Service/Cashier area. A gentleman noticed and commented how honest I was. It was the only thing to do. All I could think of was the panicked moment went you realize you lost your purse.

I got a bunch of cashmere sweaters, a really nice suit for my hubby and some clothes for my son...

Then it was off to Tysons II to Saks--where everything that was on sale was an additional 40% off. I got there at 7:30 am. Boy what a disappointment--never doing that again. There was VERY little on sale. Nothing else was open so by 8:30 am I decided to brave the behemoth, Tysons I, while I waited for Tysons II to open up.

I found great parking quickly. I shopped, got the stuff I needed by 9:30 am and went back to Tysons II. (They are across the street from one another.) Went to Williams Sonoma, Coach and Neiman Marcus. Neiman''s had the cutest Saint sterling, gold and diamond bee hoop earrings. I''ll post pics.

I went to a camera store and got my daughter a videocam, and I was done and home by lunchtime. I told my hubby I saved him LOTS of $$$.

Then I went outside into the hot tub.

 

[Kaleigh]

Ann,
Yes most of the stores at my King of Prussia mall have them on sale the day after Christmas, Bloomies, Strawbridges and Lord and Taylor. I am almost at the point now where my tree is 80% Radko ornaments. I just love them!!

 

[AndyRosse]

Craftygirl, we went to Tysons I around 12:00 and the parking lot was absolutely jammed! Not to mention we were shoulder to shoulder with people in the mall.

We found a parking space after a long search, but the rest of our family who showed up around 2:00 could not find a space at all! When we left around 6:00, the parking lot was much better, so we have decided next year we are going to Tysons at 6:00

.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Date: 11/25/2005 9:03:44 AM
Author: pebbles
Is it just me, or are the stores opening earlier and earlier? I used to work at Kmart (don''t laugh!) when I was in high school and on breaks home from college. I remember it opening on Black Friday at 7am. Then the store started opening at 6am, now it''s 5am!!! I wouldn''t be surprised for them to start opening at midnight.

Haha, the mall by my house opened at 1 am! I thought it would be fun to go with my sister and FSIL so we went around 1:30 am. Oh my G-d. Not only could we not find a parking space but there were MOBS of people OUTSIDE. It looked like a concert. These people didn''t even move out of the way of my car (and they weren''t wearing reflecters, kind of dangerous

) It was like something out of a horror movie so we decided to skip it. We came home laughing so hard (I thought I was going to pee my pants) my FI drove over there because he didn''t believe us. (luckily it is around the corner) We all went about 3:00 pm and it was not bad at all! Hardly any waits at the register. It was like any normal day. I think sometimes there are black friday myths. But if you go in the afternoon it is usually fine.

 

[DonaBella]

I know I am late to this thread, but I did not get out of bed early for shopping at the mall on Black Friday. I did have a couple of stores to go to and I did that later in the day when some of the hoopla died down, but still, I was not at the mall. The stores I went to--Officemax and Target--were near the mall but not close enough to have to deal with the crazy folks who were there. I hear Walmart opened at 4 or 5 am. That''s way too early for me!

My son works in the mall at the TMobile kiosk and was hit pretty hard with buyers. His girlfriend works at the Bath and Body Works store and the poor girl had a horrid day...

I did go to the store on Saturday for a few things, but I will have to hit the malls hard this week to get things finished up. I have 3 kids that I finished shopping for, 2 kids more that are 2/3 to 3/4 done, 3 other kids I haven''t shopped for at all yet, 1 kid that I have 90% of his left to do and my hubby doesn''t want anything!

I am getting him to help shop for the 3 kids that I haven''t shopped for yet! He needs to share the "joy" of searching for that perfect gift, right?

 

[IrishEyes]

Hell no. I think it is absolutely ridiculous and a blatant display of greed on the part of people who participate in that madness. Why on earth would you get up that early on your day off to fight for a parking spot, brave a line of up to 150 people, argue with a complete stranger over some new toy, and spend literally the whole day carrying bags upon bags around??? Never made any sense to me. I have two little words for these people: SHOP ONLINE. Now, I realize that not everyone has a computer. BUt really people - you have a whole month to get the shopping done. Why cram it all in on one excruciatiating day? I just don''t get it.

Normally, I just sleep the whole day after thanksgiving. But I now work in jewelry retail, so I was at work at 9 so that we could open at ten. We had so many people just sitting in their cars in the parking lot waiting for us to open. My boss thought it was great

He was like "they''re ready to bust down the doors! It''s going to be a great day! Woo!" while I was very annoyed. I like it so that that I have 5 minutes to collect myself and take a breath before helping people. So if we open at 10, I need until 10:05 to apply my lipgloss, get my coffee and chill for a sec before going out there and facing "the people". Needless to say, I didn''t get that on Friday morning because as soon as we opened the doors - there they were, expecting us to bend over backwards for them because it''s their day off, it''s black friday, and they''ve been up since 4 am and are starting to get tired. BOO HOO

Yes, I work in retail and I''m NOT a people person!! LOL.....

 

[Blue824]

So normally I avoid this weekend of shopping like the plague...but I ended up having to go to shop with my brother for my parents since he wouldn''t be home again until Dec 23 which is a little too last minute for us. But we did this on Saturday and I was so surprised at how few people were out! No parking trouble, no messy stores, no long lines...but I know, Saturday is not the same as Friday AM. It was a pleasant surprise. However...I felt like almost nothing we bought was a "deal," LOL the majority of what we got wasn''t even on sale!! What''s up with that?! However, the one deal I was proud of was when we ran into Target I saw a huge stand of Harry Potter DVDs and all 3 of the movies available thus far were on sale for $5.80. So all 3 of the 2-disc sets were available for under $18. That was nuts! I made my brother get them for me as part of my xmas gift. Anyway, as much as I''d have rather been doing other things, it wasn''t so bad, and now I''m probably 80% done with my shopping and it isn''t even December, so not too bad!

ETA I just checked on Amazon.com and the dvds are available for just under $10 each so maybe it wasn''t that awesome of a deal, but we thought it was at the time! It is still like getting one free.

 

[pebbles]

I heard that the weekend before Christmas is worse than Black Friday as far as crowds and people are concerned. You have all those last minute shoppers that are panicking trying to find anything! I do most of my shopping online anyway...

 

[CanadianGal]

Date: 11/23/2005 10:04:09 PM
Author: kaleigh
I hate black Friday, but love going the day after Christmas to scoop up all the Christopher Radko ornaments on sale. What is the day after Christmas called, or is it just known as that??

The day ofter Christmas is called Boxing Day. In Canada we don''t have "Black Friday" ... probably because our Thanksgiving is in early/mid October. Instead of Black Friday we do all the crazy madness shopping on Boxing Day. I love it because you can get all your Christmas decor for the next year and take advantage of sales on the things you didn''t get from your wishlist. Also, with all of the sales, giftcards can strech much farther !!