Well Black Friday turned out to be a pretty interesting day. I got to Target at 4:45 am to find the line wrapped around the building. By the time I got inside, all of The Office and Friends seasons were all gone. I saw one person grab about 6 copies of the same season of Friends for herself, which I thought was a bit selfish, but I wasn't going to get it anyway so oh well. There were lots of Leap Frog alphabet things available which I was pleased about. My mom grabbed one for the kids for Christmas. I got a movie for my dad for Christmas for $10, and a Nintendo DS cooking game, that's actually pretty cool. It has all these different recipes from around the world, and talks you through cooking them. For $7 I thought it was a fun investment for me to learn how to make foreign dishes from scratch.
After Target we went to Macy's, which wasn't crowded at all. I was debating getting a nice stainless steel saucepan, but then decided against it. I figure I'll get a complete set in a year or two. My mom got a couple things for my little brother. We tried using the coupon in their ad for $10 off a $25 purchase, but they wouldn't let us use it because the items were technically "doorbusters". I thought that was pretty lame.
After Macy's we went to Walmart, which was a complete madhouse. It was 5:45, and pretty much all the kid's pajamas that I wanted were gone. I found some for my nephews because my sister hadn't found any for them in her Walmart. I wanted to run up to K-mart, so my mom so nicely stayed to pay for everything. Poor thing, it took her about 45 minutes to get through the line to pay! Ridiculous! Cool thing though, as people waited in line, they must have either gotten rid of things they didn't want, or just didn't want to wait in line, so they put their items to the side, and my mom found some of the pajamas that I wanted in my son's size. I was super excited about that. So we only got pajamas and a hoodie at Walmart. I glanced at their movie selections on sale, but wasn't very impressed, nor was I by the Wii games on sale, and the winter boots that I so desperately need. I was pretty bummed after Walmart.
After not having a lot of luck at the previous store, I rushed up to K-mart around 6:15 to try to get a bike for my son's birthday. Luckily I got there 15 minutes after they opened, and there were still a few bikes left. I was very excited about that. I got it for $25, which I think is a great deal. I went over to the baby section to look at their clothes, and completely fell in love with these adorable dresses and dress coats for girls. I can't even describe how cute they are. They were $8 a piece, which I wasn't too sure about, but normally I can get a nice used dress at Deseret Industries for around $5, so I figured it wasn't too bad. The dress coats were normally $25, and the dresses were normally $20, so they really were marked down a lot. I got my daughter two dresses, one for this year, and one for next year. I also got three dress coats for the next three years. I also got a couple sweat pant outfits for the kids. I spent more than I would have liked to at K-mart, but saved about double of what I spent. It was all things that we will definitely use, so I don't have any regrets about it. K-mart really was the great suprise store of Black Friday. I definitely didn't expect it to be my favorite store to go to, and with the best deals too. The only downfall was how long it took me to checkout. I stood in line for about 30 minutes. I tried to be positive though, and tried to talk to the people around me, mainly because I was tired of hearing them gripe about how slow the checker was. I really feel bad for checkers on Black Friday; it's got to be a pretty rough work day for them...
After K-mart I went to breakfast with my mom, and then I stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up my mother-in-law's Christmas present. This was about 9 am. They had coupons for 20% of your purchase, but I had a coupon for $5 off a $15 purchase, which ended up being a better deal, so I used that. I had found the coupon in their ad they had sent out earlier this week in the mail.
My last stop was to Roberts, where I picked up a nice wood board, paint and brushes to use for a Christmas decoration I wanted to make with some vinyl lettering I won in a contest a few months ago. I'm not crafty at all, but it actually turned out very well, which makes me happy. I used a 50% off coupon that was in their Black Friday ad in the newspaper, so the total ended up being $7, which I think is great, because if I were to buy an already prepared Christmas decoration like I one I made, I'm pretty sure it would have cost twice that, and I wouldn't have the satisfaction of actually being crafty for once! :)
In all, Black Friday turned out really well. I went in thinking that Walmart and Target would have the best deals, and yes they did have great prices, but not enough items in stock, even for those of us who got up at 4 am to go. K-mart was a huge suprise, and I think I will take that into consideration next year. The other stores weren't very busy either, and that may be because I went later on in the morning. I remember going to Walmart and Target at around 8 am last year, and that may be why I was so hopeful about them this year.
I'm not really sure why people are so apprehensive about Black Friday. I really quite enjoy it. I love finding great deals. I'm not a huge fan of swarming groups of pushy people reaching around you to grab the deals, but if you pick the right stores at the right times, you might be suprised about Black Friday.
How did Black Friday go for the rest of you?
I was not happy with Walmart at all. We got there at 3:45 and it was crazy. All of their non doorbusters went on sale at midnight which their ad and website did not indicate. We did get most of what we wanted but not some. As for target we got there an hour after it opened and they still had all of the friends and office seasons. But, just so you know for future reference, Walmart will price match so you could have gone back and gotten those.
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