Black Friday- Do You Go Shopping on that Day?

I better really, really, really need it a whole bunch. And, I not talkin "grocery shopping".

wow.
I just got back home, and I was truly amazed at the LACK of crowds and crazy traffic.

I got some good bargains, even though I wasn't looking for them.

How I spent my Black Friday by Chai Tea

First went to Central Market, for sardines for me, and a candle for my neighbor. He really liked the scent of one I was burning last night, so I got him one.
No line, walked right up to the cashier.

Pet Smart - Cat litter. No line, walked right up to the casher.

Walked to the Ulta 2 doors down, for eye shadow. Had a $3.50 off $10 purchase coupon. One customer ahead of me.

Garden Ridge. It was busy, but not crazy. A week ago, I bought a xmas tree there, that was regularly $199, for $99.
Today only, $299 trees were on sale for $99!!
Of course I picked out a 300 dollar tree for a hundred bucks. I'm in the area often enough, so I'll just return the other one sometime in the next week (I checked, no problem in returning it.)
I also bought some more decorations, since the tree is fuller. Also got some balls to hang on a small tree out front.
They had these lit, animated deer made out of grapevine wood, reg $50, for $25 each, so I got a buck and a doe. The doe moves its neck/head up and down like it's eating, and the buck turns his neck/head back and forth, like it's looking around.
I thought I'd have to wait in line, but there were 6 cashiers, which call people out of the one waiting line when they are available, so I doubt I was there more than 5 or 10 minutes.

On the way home, stopped at Lowe's for flower bulbs. At first I thought they didn't have any more, but found them moved out of the way for the Christmas stuff.
All the bulbs were now 75% off!
I bought $100 worth of bulbs for $25.00!!
100 mixed crocus
160 tulips
150 dutch iris.
Such a deal.
One customer ahead of me in line.

Of course, I have no interest in going to an electronics store, or the mall. That would have been a nightmare I'm sure.

i dont even THINK about what day it is.
It really doesnt matter to me.

If I need something, I will go get it. Im not a big shopper, dont care about trends, not interested in the latest and greatest gadget so days like that have no importance to me

shewolf, you'd really like my animated deer.

you could put them so it would be like the doe is sniffing the bucks butt.

Now THAT??
I would shop for. Holy cow!

Go by the Lowe's on Brodie Lane.

I went to a mall today to meet a friend who was returning a coat and then have lunch. Wasn't busy at all. No problem finding a parking spot and usually that mall is the worst. There were people there, but no line ups anywhere... and only a 10 minute wait at Moxie's, which is usual or even better than usual. Some stores had no customers in them whatsoever. HOWEVER, the traffic was brutal. Multi-car pile ups on every major road, some with two or three. We were crawling. We were stopped. We were crawling. We were stopped. That alone would put me off going out again.

As today was pay day from my teaching job and as several mail order firms I had targeted as suppliers of presents had a 48 (Thursday and Friday) hour free shipping offer, I bought presents for my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters and saved $60 in shipping. I also bought a pair of cotton dress slacks, on sale for 2/3rds off their original price for myself from LLBean.

I bought some Valentine's presents for the little girls as well: on sale at 50% off, with free shipping.

I might wrap and ship the presents next week, just to avoid long lines at the PO closer to Christmas.

Now that Black Friday is over for most of the country let the healing begin!

I don't do a lot of Christmas shopping, so I suppose that I am not typical. I would not venture into a mall parking lot on Black Friday if my life depended on it. To me, hanging around the malls the day after Thanksgiving is an exercise in masochism. The next time that I will go into a store is probably a few days after New Years'.

I have found that shopping online, (especially on Amazon) is a great way to get what you want, from the comfort of your own home. For $79- a year, I get two day free shipping, no matter what the size of my purchase.

I have noticed that other stores (notably Macy's) is now offering free shipping.

Do you shop on Black Friday?

Never.

Nor do I support Amazon or any other online mega-merch. They're the Walmart of online retail. Median salaries of Amazon employees are under $12.00/hr. You get cheap prices and then pay for the food stamps that the employees need to survive.
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Amazon.com_Inc/Hourly_Rate

My husband said he needs some new jeans, and I see that jcpennys has what he wants is on sale for $15 (boot cut, regular cut on sale for $10)

I could buy them online, but I think I will go by the mall to pick them out in person, just to see what they look like.

Also, there's a particular type of pants I like at coldwater creek, but my size isn't available right now online. I'll stop by there too. I'd like to replace a camel pair, and see what other colors they might have.

No, I'm not going to shop shark frenzy like, but if I can get stuff I can use over the next year at a good price, I'll get it. I can always use V-neck, 3/4 sleeve tops, so if I can get higher quality one's at a good price, I'll do that too. They're a standard in my day to day clothes.

I'll just go to the mall, park way out of the way, put my head down, go in, get what I want/need, get out.

I'll leave here by 9am (drinking coffee now). I'll report back when I get home, to tell you how long it took.

just sayin.....

I just came off a year of being not at my regular rate of pay.

During my year of temping I would have been happy some weeks ,when it was slow, to get $12/hr. It got to the point once or twice I was happy to get $9 or $10 for less than 40 hours a week.

I pulled my belt tight, sucked it up and soldiered through it.

Is this a rant saying amazon people should be happy with $12/hr?
No.

Do I consider $12/hr starvation wages?
No.

I've only been at my "new" job about 2 months, and I'm going to be playing "get back to ground zero" for a long time. But, I can still get out there to buy $15 boot cut jeans.

Don't have the desire/need for the latest electronic stuff, or most of the other stuff that many seem to can't get along with, so maybe it's just me that wouldn't necessarily feel deprived at a low wage.

The roads were eerily empty driving to the mall. I was parked, in and out of the store in 15-20 minutes from when I arrived. Bought 4 pairs of jeans, $60.

When I walked down to Coldwater Creek, they didn't even have those particular pants. I figured they must now be an outlet item. I thought about it for a minute and said "what the hell" and did drive down to the outlet mall, which is in San Marcos.

They had the pants, but just like online, not in my size (only the skinny women, size 4's and stuff, were left) Everything in the store was marked down 50% of the lowest price on the tag. I had picked up a coupon book at the customer service center with a CC coupon $15 off $75.

Let's see, I bought 3 $25 shells for $12.50 each, 2 pullover sweaters, one originally $60, outlet price $40, got for $20, the other $70, outlet price $45, got for $22.50.

Minus the $15, plus tax and a $5 donation to St Jude Hospital (CC matched) I spent $75 for 5 items.

So, about $205 worth of clothes, marked down to $160 for $70 to $75.

I never pay full price at CC, but I know those original prices weren't inflated. I've seen people paying that full price.

The kid got in her head that she wanted to go shopping on Black Friday. I never do, I don't know where she got it from. But she was feeling cooped up and she had a gift card to use so fine, we went to JoAnn Fabrics.

There are a few possibilities in the area, I went with the least mally one, which is usually pretty empty.

It had way more cars than usual but it was more or less fine. Busy, but pleasantly so rather than mayhem. Not even close to mayhem.

Sozlet got a bunch of stuff she wanted (mostly variations of felt and embroidery floss for making ornaments), I just tagged along but did get a ribbon ladder which I'd wanted FOREVER but wasn't willing to pay $30 for. On sale for $9! Yes! Now I can finally organize my ribbons properly. Believe me, this has been a thorn in my side.

I cannot abide disorganized ribbons.

Really, I get what you mean. Something that's been bugging you, and you can fix the problem for $9 instead of $30.....priceless.


Yeah, I don't know where all these mobs were supposed to be. I guess maybe it is an electronics store/toy store thing.

Saw this on FB. I may get a Costco membership.

Costco's got a pretty respectable reputation as an employer. At least in Canada, the employees don't just have health insurance they have GOOD health insurance. The h.r. folks are usually good to deal with if we ever have coverage questions for them. I'd definitely shop there before any other big boxes of that type.

That's what I'm hearing. I try to avoid big boxes, but I'm reconsidering in this case. Also, it's getting harder and harder to find local suppliers -- they've mostly been absorbed by the big national names. We still have a local hardware store and lumber yard that we support but there's no such thing as a local pharmacy here anymore.

This is good to know, thanks.