Black Friday

It has long been a tradition to go shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I started doing it even before Jen and I got married. To understand the passion, you have to realize that both of us are bargain shoppers. I spend at least a good hour each Sunday searching through all the ADs that come in the paper looking for a good deal. I sometimes will wait months looking for the exact price that I want for an item before I buy it.

This year is the first year that we have both gotten to be out shopping at the same time since Abigail was a little baby. We went to have Thanksgiving over at Jen's parents house in Mesquite and left the girls to spend the night over there. We came home, plotted our course, and off to early bed we went.

At 3:45a, we jumped up, took 2 cars and ran off to Kohls. Kohls has been a standard for the last few years for whomever was first out. In addition to at least some of their toys being 50% off, there is usually some other items from the AD that we like. Add in our additional 15% off coupon and $10 for every $50 bucks you spend, and its a given we will go there first. Next was a detour to JC Penneys, where I went ahead and picked up a few items while Jen waited in the Kohls line. Kohls was its usual packed self, with a good 15-20 minute checkout line... but Penneys was tame in comparison. Once Jen arrived, I handed off the items and was off to start my important part of the shopping day, the great tecno-geek shopping spree.

I've done Black Friday shopping at best buy before (or sent my poor wife one time) but the lines there are just horribly long and horribly slow, so I try my best to skip it if I can. My First stop was Fry's in Irving. After parking half way into the home depot parking lot at 5:15a, I was still able to retrieve my desired free 2GB SD card along with a couple of other things and headed for the check out. Despite the terribly long line (I was past the magazines and into the major appliances section), it took only 15 minutes because they had like 50 checkout lines.

I was a little off schedule and took a detour to the Staples in Irving. My original plan was to head up toward vista ridge then to the Staples in Lewisville... but one must be flexible. This was not a good choice. I got there at 5:55a, with a bit of a line waiting to go in. There were a couple of employees handing out tickets for some items. I jumped in line and waited. 6a came and the line move a bit but then it stopped. In case you don't remember it was in the upper 30s that morning, so it was cold. For some reason the manager was only allowing a small number of people into the store and wouldn't let anyone else in until someone left. Needless to say, those of us in line were not happy. 45 minutes later, I finally get to go in to find out they were out of the 2 things I really wanted. I went to look for my third item and just gave up. I was not happy.

There was one good thing for sitting out in the cold for 30 minutes... Jen called to say that Target was already out of one item and I was able to stop in Irving to look. They didn't have it, but Walmart was able to price match without a problem. Needless to say, my schedule is shot. I made a stop a sports authority, of which one item was already gone but they had a couple of other ones. Its now 8a and I give a call to the Staples in Lewisville on the off chance that they might have my item... and they do! A quick trip up 35 and I was able to get what I wanted. A stop at 2 Radio Shacks on the way home to find the one item I wanted from them and I was done. All in all a good days' work, all before 9:30a.

BTW, Jen was at Target in Flower Mound at 6a (after stopping at the new Walmart in Highland Village for a couple of items) and the line was just nuts... out the electronics side and all the way around the side of the building all the way to the back. She waited on the grocery side entrance, which they didn't open until all the people on the electronics side went in first. After her few discount items (as mentioned above, one was gone), she went on to do the weeks' grocery shopping. If you ever wanted to find the perfect time to go grocery shopping, its on Black Friday at Target. There is not a sole on that side of the building (I'm sure Walmart is the same way, but we are Target folks).

Until the next great shopping day (the day after Christmas of course).