Black Friday is not for me
This year, we decided to partake in the Black Friday madness. I'm not sure why, as we didn't really have anything specific we were hoping to buy or any huge deals we just had to have. I suppose because many of the stores opened at midnight, we were more inclined to give it a try. Who knew what kind of deals and/or Christmas gift ideas we'd find.
We spent the afternoon at Jon's grandma's house, browsing through ads and coming up with our game plan. We knew we didn't want to deal with lines outside, so we caffeinated up and waited until midnight to hit the stores. Our first stop was Best Buy, where we found decent deals on a couple of items but the checkout line was over an hour long and put a damper on our quick Black Friday trip. In retrospect, we shouldn't have even bothered - we could have ordered it all online. The crowd was insane and I was exhausted already. But, we survived, made our purchases, and decided since we were out we couldn't quit quite yet. Next was Kohls, where we found some great sales and crossed off a couple of gifts from the list. That line too was unbearably long, almost an hour. But again we survived and saved some money while at it.
We then made a few stops in the mall. I just couldn't believe the loads of people out, laughing and gabbing as they strolled through the malls with their shopping bags, enjoying a 4am cup of coffee, reading through ads to figure out where they were off to next. How were they all so happy? I was a grump - exhausted, sore, thirsty, hungry, you name it. This girl needs her sleep, and when she's deprived, she's no ray of sunshine.
We were on our way to our last store when we walked by the Gap and Jon suggested I check out the sweaters that were advertised for $19 (since I was in need of new winter wear). I rolled my eyes at him, sighed a heavy sigh, and reluctantly walked into the store. I didn't want to make our night/morning even longer! But I found two sweaters that I liked and went to purchase them. They rang up as $19.97 and $23.97 - what the heck! I asked the cashier why they weren't ringing up at $19 each. She seemed very confused by my question (though clearly they had a huge sign that said that table of sweaters were $19) but voided the transaction and rang them up again. This time they rang up at $19 and $20.97, and the woman didn't blink an eye when she told me my new total. Hello... I stared at her for a minute, wondering how she didn't understand that this still wasn't right, and asked "So, they STILL aren't $19?" She sighed, like I was being a major inconvenience to her, and overwrote the price so they both were exactly $19. Thanks a lot, lady. I'm here to save money, so don't try to screw my in my exhausted state.
Unfortunately, this happened again in Macy's, where their 20% off signs weren't ringing up correctly. Thankfully this time it was Jon's problem, as I didn't have the energy. We learned that absolutely nothing applies for their free $10 coupon due to all of their exclusions, so it was frustrating that they make it all so difficult. Thanks for enticing us into your store only to find out we couldn't use your coupon on anything we wanted to.
It was 5:30am by the time we got home, and I was so glad that we had nothing else planned for the day. While some of the experience was interesting, and we did find a few decent deals, I don't think Black Friday wee hours of the morning shopping is for us.
We spent the afternoon at Jon's grandma's house, browsing through ads and coming up with our game plan. We knew we didn't want to deal with lines outside, so we caffeinated up and waited until midnight to hit the stores. Our first stop was Best Buy, where we found decent deals on a couple of items but the checkout line was over an hour long and put a damper on our quick Black Friday trip. In retrospect, we shouldn't have even bothered - we could have ordered it all online. The crowd was insane and I was exhausted already. But, we survived, made our purchases, and decided since we were out we couldn't quit quite yet. Next was Kohls, where we found some great sales and crossed off a couple of gifts from the list. That line too was unbearably long, almost an hour. But again we survived and saved some money while at it.
We then made a few stops in the mall. I just couldn't believe the loads of people out, laughing and gabbing as they strolled through the malls with their shopping bags, enjoying a 4am cup of coffee, reading through ads to figure out where they were off to next. How were they all so happy? I was a grump - exhausted, sore, thirsty, hungry, you name it. This girl needs her sleep, and when she's deprived, she's no ray of sunshine.
We were on our way to our last store when we walked by the Gap and Jon suggested I check out the sweaters that were advertised for $19 (since I was in need of new winter wear). I rolled my eyes at him, sighed a heavy sigh, and reluctantly walked into the store. I didn't want to make our night/morning even longer! But I found two sweaters that I liked and went to purchase them. They rang up as $19.97 and $23.97 - what the heck! I asked the cashier why they weren't ringing up at $19 each. She seemed very confused by my question (though clearly they had a huge sign that said that table of sweaters were $19) but voided the transaction and rang them up again. This time they rang up at $19 and $20.97, and the woman didn't blink an eye when she told me my new total. Hello... I stared at her for a minute, wondering how she didn't understand that this still wasn't right, and asked "So, they STILL aren't $19?" She sighed, like I was being a major inconvenience to her, and overwrote the price so they both were exactly $19. Thanks a lot, lady. I'm here to save money, so don't try to screw my in my exhausted state.
Unfortunately, this happened again in Macy's, where their 20% off signs weren't ringing up correctly. Thankfully this time it was Jon's problem, as I didn't have the energy. We learned that absolutely nothing applies for their free $10 coupon due to all of their exclusions, so it was frustrating that they make it all so difficult. Thanks for enticing us into your store only to find out we couldn't use your coupon on anything we wanted to.
It was 5:30am by the time we got home, and I was so glad that we had nothing else planned for the day. While some of the experience was interesting, and we did find a few decent deals, I don't think Black Friday wee hours of the morning shopping is for us.
I am exhausted just reading this buddy. EXHAUSTED. Good for you though, for testing it out! ;) Now you know...
ReplyDeleteI hate the hassles! I would have been so crabby!
ReplyDeleteOh man...I couldn't handle the chaos and crowds. I also could not stand in line that long! At least you can say you've done it and survived :)
ReplyDeleteBetsy
It was quite the ordeal this year (I think becuase everything opened at midnight... only true crazies get up at 3am but everyone can stay awake until midnight)! We were out that night too... Walmart was scary and we left about 5 minutes after getting there as I was scared for my life, we did wait in line outside Target for 30 minutes prior to them opening and we were able to get the TV that we wanted at a pretty sweet deal! The last stop was Kohls but after walking in and seeing the check out lines we walked right back out, went to perkins for a snack and then went back to Kohls... lines still wrapped around the store so we said forget it and went home and were fast asleep by 3am. I think maybe next year I will try the MOA, I didn't even realize they were opening at Midnight until it was too late! Fun times... if you want to call it that!
ReplyDelete