Black Friday First-Timers

I have always heard about Black Friday and how the insane people get out of bed at unheard of hours in the morning trying to get a good deal. Well, Jeff and I were looking through the ads on Thursday and saw too many things on several wish lists in our house that we thought we'd take a stab at the insanity and try some shopping at 5:00 in the morning. Luckily we had our nephew, who's 18, spend the night so we could both go our separate ways and hit several stores to try and get the deals we were shooting for.

So the alarm goes off at 4:15. Nobody heard it. Apparently Jeff hit snooze without realizing it and we both slept in a little. We shot out of bed at 4:40 and threw on some clothes, brushed our teeth, and hit the road. I was a little surprised, having never experienced this before, how many people were thinking the same things we were. I was going to Circuit City which opened at 5 for a Game Boy on sale for $50 and then Staples which opened at 6 for a FREE 9" Laminator (after the mail-in rebate). Totally worth getting out of bed for. Jeff was going to Toys R Us, Sears, then Ace Hardware for deals also worth getting out of bed for.

So I get to Circuit City at 4:55am and notice the line of people waiting to get in. It literally wrapped around the entire parking lot!! I had to park at Home Depot across from Staples which also had a line of people and they didn't open for another hour! I didn't realize that not getting in line at 4am for the store that opened at 5 wasn't worth even going into. Of course by the time I got there I was like the 1049th person in line and it was seriously dangerous once I got into the store. I went to the Game Boy section and of course they were all gone. I was so naive. Then I thought, I better go get in line at Staples if I want that Laminator! So I head over, get in line, was only about 100th in line this time and brave the freezing cold for 45 minutes before the manager comes out. I couldn't even see her but heard her with her Minnie Mouse voice:

"Good Morning!!" she says all to chipper for this hour in the morning.

"Good Morning." says an all too freezing crowd back to her.

"This is my most favorite day of the whole year! I love the excitement of the crowd, and am so happy you all decided to come to our store this morning."

Okay, we're literally freezing our hineys off. Please just let us in! There's probably 1000 people in line and only the first 20 can really see you, I can barely hear you. Just open the doors!

"My associates are all ready to help you find what you need! But first, does anyone have any questions? Can I direct you to what you're looking for before you get in?" ... "Yes, that's on aisle 14." ... "Near the back section on aisle 3" ... "Aisle 5 on the right hand side." ...

Okay, how fair is that? She's catering to the first 5 people in line and we can't even hear what they're looking for!

"Oh, to my Walla Walla and Yakima customers. The ad that ran in your region is different than mine. I don't have the ... blah, blah, blah, ... at this store. It is not on sale here. Again, to my Walla Walla and Yakima customers, the blah, blah, blah is not on sale at this store."

A lady who was like 15th in line, threw her hands up in the air and walked out of line. I did feel bad for her. She was probably there since 4am or so to be that close to the front and wasted all of that time.

So finally Minnie Mouse decides to open the doors and let everyone in. I headed straight for the Laminators, grabbed 2, went straight to the line at the cashier and was only 2nd in line. Little did I know it was only 1 per customer, no ifs ands or buts about it. She even called Minnie Mouse over to make sure. I finally got to see her up close! She looked at me like I should have known and how dare I try to get 2! Sorry! This is my first time, I got a little excited seeing so many of the one item I stood in line freezing my tail off for! So I bought my Laminator and was done. I was home by 6:15!

Jeff on the other hand didn't get home until 7:30 and found lots of stuff he was looking for. He said he had to get rid of his cart at Toys R Us because there was no room in the aisles for it. It was wall to wall people running around everywhere, crashing into you, taking everything off the shelves. He said the cashier line wrapped around the store and he was at the back of the store waiting in that line. It was seriously crazy! We went out again later that day and got more great deals on lots of stuff.

We got most of our Christmas shopping done, though. That's a first. We're usually the ones out on Christmas Eve trying to find things at the last minute and wondering why the store is out of the hot item we were looking for. Not this year! Did anyone else brave the cold and the crowds on Black Friday?