Black Friday- Do You Go Shopping on that Day?

I'm not, nope.

Some online stuff. Otherwise, I'm pretty crowd-averse.

I never had a lot of money, so I always shopped year round. If I saw something I thought someone would like, I bought it.

Through my 20s, I never went into a store during the month of December.

I hate the way that merchants have made this day into a must. When I first moved to New England, I was looking for shoes at one of the outlet stores. I overheard a woman go on and on about how her family went to NYC every Columbus Day to shop because Massachusetts stores were closed. I thought she was nuts.

There are many people who decry the fact that stores are open on holidays. They pity the clerks and they can not understand why anyone needs to shop on Veterans' Day or MLK Day. Can't a holiday be a holiday?

How many of you have pleasant memories of days without electricity? My family has two memories of separate days. The first was when my children were small. We had a woodstove in the basement and mirrored candle sconces in the dining room, which was above the stove. A floor vent allowed heat to rise into the room. I cooked dinner on the woodstove and we read out loud from Little House on the Prairie by candlelight.

Many years later, I had pizza dough ready to bake when the electricity went out. We ate cold cheese sandwiches and oranges and played Scrabble by candle light. A friend of my daughter's came over and joined us.

I raise this because many people have memories of a day without electricity that became fun. A Black Friday without shopping, but with reading aloud to each other, doing crafts and eating hot turkey sandwiches with gravy could be more fun and could better prepare us for the holidays than facing the mall.

A postscript: I hate malls and prefer independently owned shops to chain stores.

I've always shopped year round with an eye out for what the people I shopped for like; I've bought thrift-antique store items and terrific old books, and regular store things when they make sense for a particular person. Now the giving is exchanges of good wishes. You would never never ever find me black fridaying.

I was happy when stores started staying open on sundays and holidays. Re working, I used to work christmas at a hospital, an oddly nice day re camaraderie among the med staff and other workers, and the patients.

I'm big on independent stores too. I go to malls so rarely that when I do, I get a kick out of them.

No particularly jolly memories of the electricity being out.

Hell no!
No bargain can be that enticing for me to go shopping on Black Friday!

which store will have this seasons trampling death, my guess is it will be a Walmart again

I prefer the internet on Black Friday. Some good deals are out there. I'm not shopping for gifts, just good deals on stuff I'd be buying anyway, but I waited for the holiday sales.

An example:



I just bought a pair of crocs for 57% off.

I've never done black friday and I don't do Boxing day either. Dec. 26 is the big sale day here.

My daughter and i came to Canada on Boxing Day about 16 years ago. I was afraid we wouldn't find a restaurant for dinner because everything was closed.

Not any more and at the rate we are going, most service businesses will be open on Christmas day. I'm not sure but I think most provinces allow sunday shopping too, they never used to.

i've done the odd boxing day, usually a book store (believe it or not they're not as busy as Best Buy or Walmart ), and i get in early and get out

We did find a restaurant. A chain of some kind but I remember the food being fine. We were in Toronto so that I could go to the Modern Language Association convention and I brought my daughter along because she was 15. Otherwise, she would have had to stay with her father who wasn't nice to her.

We had a good time. It was very cold. We made certain to eat a Caesar salad and a bowl of chicken soup for lunch every day.

It is a shame that countries seem to think that stores need to be open as many hours as they are.

Restaurants and movie theatres are fine. We need relaxation and entertainment. Pharmacies should be open, too, because no one knows when they might need a prescription. The rest of the retail world, however, does not need to be open.

A holiday should be a holiday.

A little shopping music.

I'll confess, I am planning to go to one specific store today, for some needed christmas decorations.

Christmas is definately not my favorite holiday, and on my own, I would tend to ignore it.

However, since Wally has made huge strides forward with his depression and other issues, there's cause for celebration.

Last week, I bought a 7.5 foot prelite tree for inside the house, and 2 porch trees, prelit, at I think 4 feet each. All at half price.

Now, I realize I need some more outdoor stuff to fill in some bare areas.

I will have a full stomach, put my zen on, and sally forth. If I keep my head down and nose clean, it should be ok, and not take terribly long.

I'll report news from the front later.

I wasn't planning to but I might, too.

I need fabric for curtains for sozlet's room, and it's 50% off at Jo-Ann.

My rule of thumb for sales that are less than 75% off or so is only if I'd pay full price... and I was planning on paying full price for this. (About 5 yards at maybe $20/ yard full price, that's probably worth it.)

Try IKEA too, sozobe. I had bought fabric at IKEA for Jane's curtains and I got
it on sale for $ 1.00/yard - I bought the entire roll they had and made pillows
too.

Spoke too soon, apparently P.E.I is the last bastion of the sunday shopping ban, from Xmas to Victoria day. Just read this article this morning... once again, the goofy politician raises his ugly head.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/god-struck-down-sunday-shopping-advocate-pei-legislator-suggests/article1815091/

Never

Oh I would love to try IKEA!

It's just so far. (I will be so happy if/when they finally open one in Columbus...)

Plus I'm not sure they have exactly what I'm looking for, a specific shade of cotton velvet.

(I ended up not going to JoAnn but I did do some other shopping, it was busy but not insane. I stayed away from malls tho.)

No (unless I need something)