Friday, November 28, 2008

NEVER Again!!

Never again will I get myself outta bed at 3am to attend Black Friday sales ... NEVER!

Thanksgiving was nice ... low key, relaxing, no stress. I debated most of the day about hitting up the outlet malls at 11pm for moonlight madness. I am a recovering insomniac, so I knew I could pull an all-nighter, just wasn't sure what my plan of attack would be for some early Christmas shopping. I decided against the outlets (I don't need to purchase any more clothes!!), but thought it would be a better idea to get up at 3am for some early bird specials at my favorite stores.
Of course, trying to go to sleep at midnight proved impossible with the constant game plan and gift ideas running through my head. Sigh. So I skipped sleep all together.
Now, my hubby and I have made it a tradition to save up our cash and gift cards and head out in the wee hours of the day after Christmas to take advantage of post-holiday sales. We splurge on ourselves and have a great time snagging awesome deals. Of course, it is a busy shopping day with returns and other people with the same idea as ourselves, but it is always manageable. So I was thinking that Black Friday would be very similar ... why not join the shopping enthusiasts?
Adrenaline pumping, energy levels high, mom as my sidekick, yahoo - shopping in the middle of the night!!!
Two hours, thousands of people, lines that stretched for miles, and only 8 minutes in Toys R Us total. What in the world was I thinking? Three of the stores on our list had lines so long that it would have taken at least an hour just to get in the doors (there was no way we were going to wait that long in the cold rain!!). Toys R Us had no line within 20 minutes of opening, but good luck trying to navigate the store or find anything you could possibly want with the lines and crazy people running throughout the jammed packed aisles.
We felt headaches coming on, so we booked it out of there! Off to a quiet Starbucks for our much needed drinks near mom's house and ready to head back for some online shopping!! Ebates is offering double cash back at all stores, why not take advantage of that!! Getting paid to shop Black Friday from the comfort and sanity of home .... aaahhhh!
I was also able to get a 3 hour power nap in before the boys woke up ... with a busy day ahead, that will definitely come in handy!!
Hope you all have a wonderful and SANE holiday weekend!! Did you snag any great deals??

5 comments:

WSU Laura said...

DH went out at 4:30 to Joe's for some ROmeo's and a Gortex Jacket, on his way home he braved Target for the Star Wars Lego set for BB2. He got the last one, bought it, and came home by 7:15 am. I just read on someone else's blog about a Walmart employee in NY who was crushed to death by the crowds waiting. Horrifying!

Anonymous said...

I was out at 4:30am and managed to go to Walmart, Burlington coat factory, target, Fred Meyers, radio shack , and big lots all from 5-9am and it was fabulous I got tons of deals:) But you were right the lines were insane and the people were rude and insane:)

Anonymous said...

sorry it did not work out like you had hoped. i am an online shopper all the way...i do it while putting my feet up, wine in hand and some xmas music in the background....ahhh, heaven! :)

Ang said...

Hehe, I love your play-by-play!

This year we did not get up early... instead headed out to ToysRUs about 11 then Target. No lines, it was awesome! Of course I don't know that we "saved" a whole lot ;) But it was still pretty fun. I heart the holidays!!

JenWebb702 said...

I haven't done Black Friday for a long time. This year though, Jaron and I headed to Target at around 11am and there was hardly anyone there. Which was nice with a cranky boy in my cart!!

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