I have decided that we are insane. Who in their right minds would get up at the ass crack of dawn to go shopping? WE DID! If one is going to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, one must have a game plan. Strategic planning began Thanksgiving evening when I bought the paper to check out the ads. As we looked through the various ads, we ruled out some stores, contemplated other stores and argued whether or not to buy the 42″ LCD flat screen TV. Once that was all done, then the real planning began: Kohls opened at 5 am, Target at 6 am and Old Navy/the mall at 7 am. It would be quick strikes, spend enough time at each store to grab what we needed and head for the registers.
Friday morning began. The alarm went off. We snoozed it. The alarm went off again. Snooze. Alarm. Snooze. Alarm. Damnit, gotta get up.
As we stumbled outside, freezing our butts off, half-blind because it was still pitch black outside, we thought to ourselves, “It won’t be too bad. Not many people will be up this early to go to Kohls.”
HA! We were amateurs. We knew nothing of this phenomenon they call Black Friday. As you can see above, we were standing in line at 5:45 am! That was only the beginning. Target was even worse. When we got there around 6:15, the registers were already packed! Crowds everywhere, hands grabbing things off the shelves, the chaos! Madness, I tell you, madness! By the time we were ready to check out, the line for the registers extended all the way back to the Electronics Department. We were fortunate to check out in the Express Lane due to Bob’s restriction on the number of items I was allowed to purchase. On to the St. Louis Mills. Unlike the other two stores we hit, the Mills was actually very tame, it was as if people forgot about this place. It was great! We were able to decompress and walk around.
Finally, after five hours of shopping, we made it home in once piece, albeit much poorer than we started, but at least we are still alive. Bob was a real trooper. I was so surprised that he did not complain once to me about the stupidity of the people around us. So, as a reward, I didn’t wake him up when he promptly went to bed as soon as we got home. Will we do this for the after Christmas sale? I don’t think so.